Bilateral persistent trigeminal artery variants diagnosed by MR angiography.

A persistent trigeminal artery (PTA) is the most common anastomosis between the carotid and vertebrobasilar system. A PTA variant (PTAV) is a rare anomaly in which the cerebellar artery arises from the internal carotid artery (ICA) without connection with the basilar artery (BA). I present what I believe is the first report of bilateral PTAVs diagnosed using magnetic resonance (MR) angiography and briefly discuss the embryology of this rare anomaly. An 81-year-old woman with small infarctions underwent cerebral MR imaging and MR angiography with a 1.5-tesla imager for the evaluation of brain lesions. An MR angiography was obtained using the standard noncontrast three-dimensional time-of-flight technique. The MR angiographic demonstration of bilateral anterior inferior cerebellar arteries arising from the precavernous segment of the ICA without anastomosis to the BA indicated bilateral PTAVs. This is the first report of bilateral PTAVs diagnosed by MR angiography. The literature review indicates that an estimated prevalence of bilateral PTAVs is about 0.0012%.