title: Anomalous origins of the calcarine and parieto-occipital arteries.
abstract: Understanding cerebrovascular anatomy and its variations is of utmost importance in treating vascular malformations. The two patients presented here demonstrate yet to be reported anomalous origins of the cortical branches of the posterior cerebral artery. In one patient, fetal calcarine arteries were identified arising from the internal carotid arteries bilaterally with no calcarine branches arising from the posterior circulation and the basilar artery giving rise to terminal parieto-occipital arteries. Additionally, with vertebral artery injections, we found the dominant arterial supply to the right parieto-occipital artery arose from the right internal carotid artery and right posterior communicating artery and the dominant arterial supply to the left parieto-occipital artery arose from the right vertebral artery. A second patient demonstrated anomalous origins of the calcarine and parietal occipital branches from the supraclinoid left internal carotid artery. Understanding this complex cerebrovascular anatomy is important in the endovascular treatment of cerebrovascular aneurysms and malformations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 200 Hawkins Drive, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA. kmadhava@healthcare.uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Karthik
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Madhavan
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Dlouhy
authors.forename: Timothy W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Vogel
authors.forename: Bruno A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Policeni
authors.forename: Wendy R K
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Smoker
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Hasan
mesh_terms: D002343:Carotid Artery, Internal / Q000473:pathology*; D002533:Cerebral Angiography / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000098:blood supply; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply; D020769:Posterior Cerebral Artery / Q000473:pathology*