title: Three-Dimensional Morphometry of the A1 Segment of the Anterior Cerebral Artery With Neurosurgical Relevance.
abstract: Despite research in the anatomical sciences for the last 200 years, some structures of the human body remain controversial or incompletely described. One of these structures is the A1 segment of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA).
  
  
  
  To analyze the A1 segment of the ACA using novel stereoscopic methods because the 3-dimensional morphometry of the ACA is important to neurosurgeons.
  
  
  
  A digital-image computer-based system was used to analyze the A1 segment of 230 ACAs derived from computed tomography. Data analysis included the inner diameter, length, and volume and calculation of A1 symmetry, hypoplasia, and deviation, and tortuosity indexes.
  
  
  
  Hypoplasia of the A1 segment was found in 0.87% and only on the right sides, whereas asymmetry was found in 42.6% and was more common in female patients. Right A1 segments tended to be longer in male patients, and this reached significance. Also of significance was the correlation of an increased length with age. Right A1 segments tended to have greater volumes, and this was significant in a comparison of male and female patients. Tortuosity indexes tended to be greater for left sides, but deviation indexes tended to be greater on the right sides.
  
  
  
  Morphometric data of the A1 segment of the ACA as analyzed in the present study may be of utility to the neurosurgeon. Right A1 segments tend to be more tortuous, more deviated, longer, and narrower than left A1 segments.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Anatomy, Collegium Anatomicum, Medical Faculty, University of Varmia and Masuria, Olsztyn, Poland; and Department of Anatomical Sciences, St George's University, School of Medicine, Grenada, West Indies 2Department of Anatomy, Collegium Anatomicum, Medical Faculty, University of Varmia and Masuria, Olsztyn, Poland 3Pediatric Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama 4Department of Anatomical Sciences, St George's University, School of Medicine, Grenada, West Indies 5Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland 6Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Medical Faculty, University of Varmia and Masuria, Olsztyn, Poland 7Department of Histology and Embryology, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland 8Clarian Neuroscience Institute, Indianapolis Neurosurgical Group and Indiana University Department of Neurosurgery, Indianapolis, Indiana.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Żurada
authors.forename: Jerzy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: St Gielecki
authors.forename: R Shane
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Tubbs
authors.forename: Marios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Loukas
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Żurada-Zielińska
authors.forename: Wojciech
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Maksymowicz
authors.forename: Dariusz
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.forename: Aaron A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Cohen-Gadol
mesh_terms: D020771:Anterior Cerebral Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002533:Cerebral Angiography; D003199:Computer Systems; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed