Arterial variants, defined as atypical presentations of anatomy including aberrant origin, course, and branching pattern, are important to be aware of because of their effects in the clinical setting as well as their possible link to pathology. Much research has already been done focusing on specific arterial variants in a specific region in the body. However, more research is needed to determine if there is a relationship between arterial variants in different regions of the body. The purpose of this study is to examine the whole-body arterial system of body donors in order to assess if there is a relationship between the presence of arterial variants in one region of the body to the other. The entire arterial system of twenty-five formalin fixed body donors was examined for the presence of arterial variants. The data was separated into two main categories, central variants (e.g. arch of the aorta, unpaired abdominal aortic branches) and peripheral variants (e.g. upper and lower extremities). The relationship between the central and peripheral variants was determined using quantitative observation, specifically, by examining the percent frequency of cases where arterial variants were co-occurring. Of the body donors examined, all were found to have at least one arterial variant, with an average of 8.7 variants per body. Arterial variants were most commonly found in the foregut with prevalence of 80%, the midgut (68%), left subclavian (60%), right upper extremity (52%), and the left upper extremity (48%). Of the central arterial variants, a percent frequency of 20% was found for the arch of the aorta, 20% for the coronary artery, 12% for the hindgut, 28% for the right renal, and 28% for the left renal. For the peripheral variants, the percent frequencies were as follows: brain variants were 4%, right carotid 8%, left carotid 0%, right subclavian 28%, left upper extremity 40%, right suprarenal 24%, left suprarenal 12%, right phrenic 24%, left phrenic 12%, gonadal 4%, right iliac 40%, left iliac 32%, and right lower extremity 40%. Examination of the relationship between central variants and peripheral variants reveals that the most common arterial variants to occur in tandem in the sample were those of the variant foregut with variants of the left subclavian artery (52% of cases), the upper and lower extremities (36-44% and 40-44% of cases, respectively), and the right iliac artery (36% of cases). The most common central arterial variants to co-occur were the variants of the foregut and midgut observed in 64% of cases. The frequency of cases involving normal central anatomy and variant peripheral anatomy indicates that vascular variants in the periphery are likely unrelated to variants in the central body cavities. However, it does seem like there are “hot spots” for arterial variants to occur, including the foregut, midgut left subclavian artery, right and left upper extremities, the right iliac artery, and the right and left lower extremities. Although there was no discernable pattern found between vascular variants in the present study, that does not preclude the possibility that there is a significant relationship between certain vascular variants. Either way, the high prevalence of cases with multiple arterial variations suggests that they may be more likely to occur than previously thought.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/36591 |
| Date | 13 June 2019 |
| Creators | Kontur, Sophie |
| Contributors | Whitney, Elizabeth R., MacNeil, Maryanne |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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