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Anatomical evaluation of P1 segment of posterior cerebral artery and posterior communicanting artery in 340 human hemispheres: a proposal for morphological classification

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of our study is to examine the morphometry of the P1 segment of the posterior cerebral artery (P1) and the posterior communicating artery (PcomA) and to present a descriptive classification according to morphometric findings.

Methods

340 hemispheres from 170 cadavers were included. The outer diameters of P1 and PcomA were measured with ImageJ software. Then, the configurations of the posterior cerebral artery were revealed as fetal, adult and transitional. The findings were correlated with the demographic information of the cadavers such as gender, body mass index (BMI), age.

Results

According to the morphometric findings, 83.75%, 13.85% and 2.40% of the posterior cerebral arteries were found to be adult, fetal and transitional, respectively. The fetal type was more common in cadavers aged 60 years and older (13.73%) compared to the 18–39 and 40–59 age groups. In addition, P1 and PcomA diameters also increased with age. Fetal and transtional types showed a similar low distribution in people with low (< 18.5), normal (18.5–24.9), overweight (25–29.9) and obese (> 30) BMI, whereas adult type was found in cadavers with a normal BMI of 140/303.

Conclusion

We believe that the findings of our study will contribute to the planning of neurointerventional procedures, the development of endovascular devices, the success of invasive procedures and the reduction of complications.

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Data availability

Gkionoul.chatzioglou@istun.edu.tr.

Abbreviations

PCA:

Posterior cerebral artery

P1:

P1 segment of posterior cerebral artery

PcomA:

Posterior communicanting artery

pP1:

Proximal part of P1 segment of posterior cerebral artery

dP1:

Distal part of P1 segment of posterior cerebral artery

dPcomA:

Distal part of posterior communicanting artery

LPCA:

Length of posterior cerebral artery

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Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Health and Technology University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Emine Nas & Özcan Gayretli

  2. Department of Anatomy, Institute of Graduate Studies in Health Sciences, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Emine Nas

  3. Departement of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Health and Technology University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Gkionoul Nteli Chatzioglou

Authors
  1. Emine Nas
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Contributions

G.N.C., E.N. wrote the main manuscript text and G.N.C.and E.N. prepared Figs. 1–3 and tables. All authors reviewed the manuscript

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gkionoul Nteli Chatzioglou.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

Ethical approval

Ethics committee approval of our study was received by the Istanbul Medical Faculty Clinical Research Ethics Committee (date: 17.02.2023, number: 2023/320)

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Nas, E., Nteli Chatzioglou, G. & Gayretli, Ö. Anatomical evaluation of P1 segment of posterior cerebral artery and posterior communicanting artery in 340 human hemispheres: a proposal for morphological classification. Surg Radiol Anat 46, 685–695 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-024-03335-8

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