Anatomical evaluation of P1 segment of posterior cerebral artery and posterior communicanting artery in 340 human hemispheres: a proposal for morphological classification

The aim of our study is to examine the morphometry of the P1 segment of the posterior cerebral artery (P1) and the posterior communicating artery (PcomA) and to present a descriptive classification according to morphometric findings.

340 hemispheres from 170 cadavers were included. The outer diameters of P1 and PcomA were measured with ImageJ software. Then, the configurations of the posterior cerebral artery were revealed as fetal, adult and transitional. The findings were correlated with the demographic information of the cadavers such as gender, body mass index (BMI), age.

According to the morphometric findings, 83.75%, 13.85% and 2.40% of the posterior cerebral arteries were found to be adult, fetal and transitional, respectively. The fetal type was more common in cadavers aged 60 years and older (13.73%) compared to the 18–39 and 40–59 age groups. In addition, P1 and PcomA diameters also increased with age. Fetal and transtional types showed a similar low distribution in people with low (< 18.5), normal (18.5–24.9), overweight (25–29.9) and obese (> 30) BMI, whereas adult type was found in cadavers with a normal BMI of 140/303.

We believe that the findings of our study will contribute to the planning of neurointerventional procedures, the development of endovascular devices, the success of invasive procedures and the reduction of complications.