The Fetal Type of Posterior Cerebral Artery

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Anatomical variations of the arterial circle of Willis (cW) are common. A posterior cerebral artery (PCA) fed mostly or exclusively from the internal carotid artery is a fetal PCA (FPCA), partial (p-FPCA), or full/complete (f-FPCA), respectively. Because FPCA occurs in different anatomical configurations of the cW sides, we aimed to document in detail these morphological possibilities of FPCA within the cW. Materials and Methods: FPCAs were documented on a retrospective set of 139 computed tomography angiograms. Results: FPCAs were found in thirteen cases, nine males and four females. In 7/13 cases there were two modified sides of the cW. In 5/13 cases there were three altered sides of the cW. Another case with FPCA showed four altered sides of the cW. In 10/13 cases, FPCA was unilateral and in the other three cases it was bilateral. Compared to the overall group, unilateral p-FPCAs were found in 1.43%, while unilateral f-FPCAs were found in 5.75%. A bilateral p-FPCA-f-FPCA combination was found in 0.71% and a bilateral f-FPCA-f-FPCA combination occurred in 1.43%. An anatomically isolated ICA was found in just one case with bilateral f-FPCA (0.71%). In 7/13 FPCA cases there were arterial variants exclusively in the posterior cW. In the other 6/13 FPCA cases, there were variants in both anterior and posterior circulation. There were no statistically significant associations of FPCA with sex or age. The higher prevalence of right-sided FPCA was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Anatomical assessments of cW should be performed on a case-by-case basis, as they may correspond to different cW morphologies.

Keywords

• internal carotid artery
• cerebral artery
• vertebral artery
• basilar artery
• posterior communicating artery