Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Different imaging detections for vertebral artery are still varied and controversial. The development of CT angiography has provided a new method for the anatomic observation and disease diagnosis about vessels and joints.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the three-dimensional CT angiography (3DCTA) in displaying the second (V2) segment of the vertebral artery, and to identify its course and variation.
METHODS: Totally 250 cases without obvious pathological lesions were selected from the 3D data of head-neck CT angiography examination. On the 3D images, the courses of the V2 segment of the vertebral artery and the variations of the vascular diameter were observed.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The vertebral artery entered the C6 transverse foramen in 92.6% of all specimens. An abnormal level of entrance was observed in 7.4% of specimens (37 courses), with a level of entrance into the C₄, C₅, or C₇ transverse foramen, respectively, in 2.2% (n=11; 29.7% of all anomalies), 4.6% (n=23; 62.2% of all anomalies) and 0.6% (n =3; 8.1% of all anomalies) of all specimens. 20 (54.1%) abnormalities were right-sided and 17 (45.9%) were left-sided. 27 out of 250 patients (10.8%) had a unilateral anomaly and 5 had a bilateral anomaly (2%). To compare the vascular diameter of the vertebral artery, the size in the left were larger than that in the right in 53 cases, and the size in the right were larger than in the left in 30 cases, which was of significant difference between left and right (P < 0.01). The incidence of anatomic variations of the vertebral artery V2 segment is high. 3D-CTA, which can objectively reflect the pathology of the vertebral artery, has important clinical value.