Manifestations of duplicated middle cerebral artery in three dimensional time of flight MR angiography and their clinical significance

Abstract

Objective To explore the three dimensional time of flight (3D-TOF) MR angiography (MRA) manifestations and its clinical significance in duplicated middle cerebral artery (DMCA). Methods The clinical and MRA data of 37 patients with DMCA, admitted to our hospital from July 2013 to April 2017, were collected. The original images were reconstructed by maximum immensity projection (MIP). The imaging features of origin, sizes, walking and distribution of DMCA were observed, and DMCA classification was performed. Results Among the 37 patients with DMCA, 24 patients with type A were from the internal carotid artery (ICA) terminal, and the proximal part was parallel to the MCA-M1 segment; 13 patients with type B were originated between the anterior choroidal artery and the ICA terminal, the proximal end in 8 patients was parallel to the M1 section of the middle cerebral artery and the proximal end in 5 patients was obviously curved to the temporal lobe. The relative size of type A was 0.94±0.07 (0.72-1.00), while that of type B was 0.68±0.22 (0.31-1.00), with statistically significant difference (P<0.05). Conclusions The 3D-TOF-MRA can display the detailed information of DMCA, which can be used as the important methods for its diagnosis. And this vascular variation has important clinical significance, and awareness on this vascular variation should be strengthened in clinical work. Key words: Duplicated middle cerebral artery; Vascular variation; Three dimensional time of flight MR angiography