title: A case of a coexisting aberrant internal carotid artery and persistent stapedial artery: the role of MR angiography in the diagnosis.
abstract: We describe the case of a 37-year-old woman who presented with a complaint of recurrent headaches since childhood. Clinical examination revealed the presence of a reddish-bluish mass in the inferior half of the tympanic membrane in her right ear. Source and three-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) detected a protruded right internal carotid artery (ICA) in the hypotympanum. The vertical segment of the ICA was absent, and the artery was narrowed and lateralized and had a "reverse 7" shape. Meanwhile, a persistent stapedial artery (PSA) was seen originating in the petrous portion of the ICA to form a middle meningeal artery. The A1 segment of the right anterior cerebral artery was hypoplastic. Based on these findings and on follow-up findings on computed tomography, the patient was diagnosed with a concomitant aberrant ICA and PSA. No intervention was undertaken. We review the management of this rare finding, and we discuss the role of MRA in its diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Ankara Turkey.
authors.forename: Hatice Gul
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Hatipoglu
authors.forename: Mehmet Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Cetin
authors.forename: Enis
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yuksel
authors.forename: Huseyin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dere
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D020771:Anterior Cerebral Artery / Q000473:pathology*; D002343:Carotid Artery, Internal / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012008:Recurrence; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed