Anatomy of the Intracranial Arteries: The Internal Carotid Artery

Dylan N Wolman; Adrienne M Moraff; Jeremy J Heit

doi:10.1016/j.nic.2022.04.006

Anatomy of the Intracranial Arteries: The Internal Carotid Artery

Neuroimaging Clin N Am. 2022 Aug;32(3):603-615. doi: 10.1016/j.nic.2022.04.006.

Authors

Dylan N Wolman¹, Adrienne M Moraff², Jeremy J Heit³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Department of Neuroimaging and Neurointervention, Stanford School of Medicine, Center for Academic Medicine, 453 Quarry Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.
² Division of Neurosurgery, Howard University School of Medicine, 2041 Georgia Avenue Northwest, Suite 4000, Washington, DC 20060, USA.
³ Department of Radiology, Department of Neuroimaging and Neurointervention, Stanford School of Medicine, Center for Academic Medicine, 453 Quarry Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. Electronic address: jheit@stanford.edu.

PMID: 35843665
DOI: 10.1016/j.nic.2022.04.006

Abstract

The internal carotid artery is an elegant vessel that is segmentally defined by adjacent anatomic landmarks and defined branch vasculature. Here we describe the segmental and branch angiographic anatomy of the internal carotid artery with particular regard to embryologic development, clinically important anastomotic pathways, and cerebrovascular diseases, such as aneurysm development.

Keywords: Anterior choroidal artery; Artery; Cerebral; Internal carotid artery; Intracranial; Ophthalmic artery; Posterior communicating artery; Superior hypophyseal artery.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Carotid Artery, Internal* / diagnostic imaging
Cerebral Angiography
Humans
Intracranial Aneurysm*