Folia Morphologica 2013, tom 72, nr 2

Coronary arterial anomalies (CAA) are reported to occur between 0.6–1.3% [22, 24, 25]. In this modern era, where invasive treatment strategies for coronary arterial disease are increasing rapidly, comprehensive knowledge and experience about CAA are mandatory for cardiologists and surgeons dealing with invasive cardiology. The clinical importance of CAA may vary between asymptomatic harmless conditions to hazardous lesions, which may even lead to sudden cardiac death (SCD). Some CAA may cause angina, dyspnoea, arrhythmias, syncope and SCD. Autopsy series blame CAA as the second most important cause of SCD observed in young athletes younger than 35 years of age [2, 15]...

Variations of the thoracic arteries, including branches of the aortic arch, are interesting from an anatomical and embryological aspect [4, 8, 27, 32]. They are, however, more important for thoracic operations, especially in vascular, cardiac, oesophageal, and mediastinal surgery [1, 9, 12, 14, 34]. Modern radiological techniques, especially computerised tomographic angiography (CTA), magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), multislice CT (MSCT), and MSCT angiography, have enabled an elegant insight into the thoracic blood vessels [21, 27]. Obviously, the mentioned variations are also very important in radiological diagnostics and interventional radiology...

Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is among the most common causes of cardiovascular mortality, preceded by acute coronary syndromes and stroke [6]. However, as the clinical symptoms and signs in patients with PE may mimic multiple cardiovascular or pulmonary conditions, imaging methods have become one of cornerstones in the diagnostic process in this group of patients, with computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) becoming the gold-standard in the imaging of suspected PE...

The anterior clinoid process (ACP) is an intracranial, medial extension of the lesser sphenoid wing and represents a roof to the anterior segment of the cavernous sinus [16]. The process projects posteriorly and medially in the middle cranial fossa and constitutes a boundary of the caroticoclinoid foramen if the ACP is merged with the top of the medial clinoid process [10]. The ACP is closely related to many vital neurovascular structures, including the internal carotid artery (ICA) adjacent to the medial and posterior aspect of the ACP [8, 22]...

The term “Heubner’s artery” was first used in 1909 by Aitken, after Heubner’s classical description of the vessel in 1872 [4]. Other authors called this vessel the long centralis artery [15], telencephalic artery [2], distal medial striate artery [6] or the rostral striate artery [1]. The recurrent artery of Heubner (RAH) arises at the level of the anterior communicating artery, most commonly from the A1 or A2 segment of the anterior cerebral artery (ACA), or at the junction of the ACA and the anterior communicating artery (ACoA) [8]...

Variations of the brachial plexus and its terminal branches are not uncommon. Anastomosis between the musculocutaneous (MCN) and the median nerve (MN) are certainly the most common and frequent variations observed among the branches of the brachial plexus [6, 14]. Many papers in the literature have demonstrated that variations in brachial plexus branching have implicating clinical and surgical importance [3, 8, 10, 13]...