Basilar artery hypoplasia

Basilar artery hypoplasia is a rare vascular anomaly of the basilar artery.

Pathology

Associations

Basilar artery hypoplasia is usually accompanied by one or more fo the following:

• persistent carotid-vertebrobasilar anastomoses
• hypoplastic V4 segments of the vertebral arteries
• unilateral or bilateral fetal origin of the posterior cerebral artery

Related pathology

There are some studies suggesting that basilar artery hypoplasia is related to undetermined or lacunar posterior circulation stroke, however, further studies are required to confirm this association .

Differential diagnosis

Acquired conditions must be excluded as differential diagnoses, such as:

• atherosclerotic stenosis: commonly involve the middle part of basilar artery, with irregular and non-uniform appearance
• fibromuscular dysplasia: commonly presented as multifocal stenosis and adjacent dilatations