Enlarged anterior spinal artery as collateral circulation

Abstract

✓The authors report and discuss two cases in which collateral circulation could be angiographically demonstrated passing through the anterior spinal artery. Case 1 proved to have occlusions of the left internal carotid artery and both vertebral arteries. The basilar artery was visualized via the anterior spinal, the primitive trigeminal, and primitive otic arteries. The presence of multiple vascular malformations and an abnormal anterior spinal artery suggested that the latter had been functioning as collateral circulation since an embryonic stage. In Case 2, both internal carotids and both vertebral arteries were occluded by arteriosclerotic changes. It was assumed that the deleted anterior spinal artery visualized angiographically had developed into a collateral circulation with increasing age.