Abstract
Embryologically, the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) is a branch of the internal carotid artery arising from its posterior cranial division; the connection with the basilar artery (pars basilaris) develops later. The connection with the ICA (pars carotica) can completely regress or persist as a large or small vessel, becoming the posterior communicating artery (PcomA). The posterior shift of the vascular territories (posterior temporal and occipital areas) leads to increased distance between the origin of the PCA and its vascular territories. The decrease of this distance by shifting the origin of PCA from the ICA to the BA could be interpreted as a natural evolution to compensate this process (Kier 1974). Variants in this evolution will be described later.
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Bradac, G.B. (2014). Posterior Cerebral Artery. In: Cerebral Angiography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54404-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54404-0_7
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