KINKING OF THE HUMAN INTERNAL CAROTID-ARTERY - A STATISTICAL STUDY IN100 HEALTHY-SUBJECTS BY ECHOCOLOR DOPPLER

Background. Kinking of the internal carotid artery is a rather frequen t anomaly. It is still controversial whether it has a clinical relevan ce, causing cerebral vascular disturbances, or if it is a mere morphol ogic anomaly. a study concerning its frequency in asymptomatic subject s and an evaluation of its possible correlations were, therefore, cons idered interesting, Methods, The internal carotid artery was studied i n 100 apparently healthy subjects (50 men and 50 women; age range: 18 to 98 years) with no history of atherosclerotic disease of the, supra- aortic trunks, or diabetes mellitus, or hypertension, Each patient und erwent color Doppler ultrasonography. Results. In 38 subjects out of 1 00, and in 53 out of 200 examined arteries (100 right and 100 left art eries), a kinking was found (26.5%). In 23 kinkings (43% of all the ki nkings), the maximal systolic velocity (MSV) was greater than 1 m/sec at the level of the kinking. The kinkings were more frequent in women; such prevalence was statistically significant, The frequency of kinki ngs was uncorrelated with the side of the artery, the age, the body we ight, the height and the length of the neck, Moreover, the presence of the kinkings was not significantly correlated with the lumen of the i nternal carotid artery, Conclusions. Hypotheses regarding the genesis of the kinkings were discussed, and the embryogenic hypothesis was emp hasized, The importance of the MSV in the diagnosis of kinkings was st ressed.