title: The microvasculature of the human cerebellar meninges.
abstract: The vascular architecture of the human cerebellar meninges was investigated. The surface meninges were poor in vasculature. In the sulci, the meninges were highly vascular but had few capillaries. The venous blood vessels gave long side branches at right angles to the parent vessels in a cruciform pattern, running horizontally along the cerebellar sulci. They were situated at the origin of the secondary or tertiary sulci. Anastomoses between these horizontal branches gave a crosshatched appearance. Short branches often extended to the bases of the sulci, terminating in T-shaped bifurcations with numerous tiny branches, like the roots of a tree. The arteries ran perpendicular to venous branches which were parallel to each other exclusively along the sagittal plane. These arteries bifurcated to straddle the horizontally running veins at the origin of the secondary or tertiary sulci. They gave off many small branches like teeth of a fork from each artery in the secondary or tertiary sulci after they bifurcated to straddle the venous branches and penetrated the cerebellar cortex at the bases of sulci. These fork-like ramifications in the bases of the sulci were most likely responsible for the ready development of pronounced ischemic state. They might also play an important role in the occurrence of ischemic damage at the bases of sulci in cases of severe generalized ischemia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Toho University School of Medicine, 5-21-16 Ohmori-Nishi, Ohtaku, Tokyo 143-8540, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nonaka
authors.forename: Michiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akima
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hatori
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagayama
authors.forename: Zean
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Fumie
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ihara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008578:Meninges / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D014172:Transillumination