title: [The study of clinical anatomy of lingual artery in physiological condition].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To provide the clinical anatomy data in physiological condition of the lingual artery in 64-slices spiral computed tomography angiography (CTA) for clinical treatment concerning the lingual artery.
  
  
  METHODS
  CTA examination of the carotid artery were performed on 80 adult volunteers. The 3D reconstruction images of the carotid artery with hyoid bone were obtained by using 64-slices spiral CT and image postprocessing workstation. The origin, pathway, and anatomic relations of the lingual artery in CTA were studied. The distance from the origin of the lingual artery to the bifurcation of the common carotid artery and tip of the greater horn of hyoid bone were separately measured, and the distance between the segment of the greater horn of hyoid bone of lingual artery and the middle of greater horn of hyoid bone were also measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The pathway of the lingual artery had high variation, but the relative position between the segment of the greater horn of hyoid bone of lingual artery and the greater horn of hyoid bone were relatively constant. The lingual artery run forward approximately parallel to the greater horn of hyoid bone into tongue (2.32 +/- 1.29) mm in the superior to the greater horn of hyoid bone or (2.00 +/- 1.68) mm in the inferior to the greater horn of hyoid bone The distances from the origin of the lingual artery to the bifurcation of the common carotid artery and tip of the greater horn of hyoid bone were (12.93 +/- 7.36) mm and (10.40 +/- 5.75) mm separately.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lingual artery could be clearly shown in CTA and the anatomy data in physiological condition of the lingual artery could be obtained by CTA. There was important instructive significance for clinical treatment concerning about the lingual artery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China.
authors.forename: Jinyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.forename: Yehai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shengchun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jing Fang
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000792:Angiography; D001158:Arteries / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036542:Tomography, Spiral Computed; D014059:Tongue / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000098:blood supply; D055815:Young Adult