Studies in cerebral circulation. Methods for the stereoscopic demonstration of the human cerebral microcirculation. Preliminary observations on the arterial supply of the red nucleus

Abstract

Methods for the development of three-dimensional stereograms of cerebral blood vessels and the microcirculation of the human red nucleus have been presented. The method is reproducible and provides lantern-slide material which an audience of 50 to 100 persons can view in three dimensions. Appropriately processed anatomic materials, wax models, three-dimensional graphs, and other photographic data which do not require full color can be used; and although the methods described were developed for the demonstration of cerebral blood vessels, they are applicable to the vasculature of any organ. The virtue of three-dimensional observation of the angioarchitecture of any organ cannot be appreciated fully until experienced. Certain preliminary observations concerning the arterial circulation to the posterior thalamic and posteroinferior extrapyramidal nuclei are presented. The various nuclei seem to have a unique arterial supply without obvious intra-arterial anastomoses where that supply is dual and from a different parent vessel. When, as in the case of the nucleus ruber, part of the dual supply is derived from primary ganglionic radicles which originate from the same parent vessel, interarterial anastomoses of large caliber occur.