At the end of the third week of development, the cardiovascular system begins to form, with the pharyngeal arches developing shortly thereafter, during weeks four and five. These pharyngeal arches are penetrated by pharyngeal arteries arising from the aortic sac. The pharyngeal arch arteries convert into the following three major arteries during weeks six to eight of development: carotid, subclavian, and pulmonary. From the subclavian artery comes the thyrocervical trunk, of which the inferior thyroid artery (ITA) is a branch (Keith et al. 2020).