Pathological tortuosity of the internal carotid artery: morphological characteristics

Aim. Pathological tortuosity of the internal carotid artery (PT ICA) is one of the leading causes of extracranial cerebral circulation disorders. Despite considerable progress in methods of diagnosis and increasing number of operations etiology, pathogenesis and morphogenesis of PT ICA remain unclear. In order to study pathological changes in PT ICA material of 26 patients was studied using routine methods of light microscopy and histochemical methods. Methods and results. It was established that among patients middle aged women predominated. For PT the characteristic type of deformation was coiling (21 cases out of 26); elongation, combined tortuosity and double kinks were met rarely. In pathomorphologic study of carotid arteries hyperplasia of intima with proliferation of smooth muscle cells, irreversible changes in elastic fibers of media with the growth of fibrous connective tissue, dystrophy of collagen fibers and smooth-muscle cells, perivascular sclerosis without cell infiltration in adventitia were revealed. Conclusion. This indicates expressed fibrogenesis processes in all the layers of the vessel wall providing the irreversibility of circulatory deformation