{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,6]],"date-time":"2025-12-06T08:54:41Z","timestamp":1765011281236,"version":"3.46.0"},"reference-count":15,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"7","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J Clin Pathol"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1995,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>AIMS--To establish whether abnormalities in the course of the vertebral artery occur and whether they are relevant to arterial injury associated with head and neck movements. METHODS--Twenty vertebral arteries were carefully dissected at necropsy and abnormalities in course were noted, along with any other bony or cartilaginous cervical anomalies. The effect of head and neck movement on these vessels was studied before a detailed histomorphometric examination was undertaken on sections of the excised arteries. RESULTS--Five vessels had an abnormal course. One vessel entered the transverse foramina of the fifth cervical vertebra rather than the sixth, but was otherwise normal. In two subjects both vertebral arteries were abnormal in the upper cervical portion with, in each case, a straight left vertebral artery and a right vertebral artery with a deficient loop, closely applied to the atlanto-axial joint. Both of these subjects also had completely ossified stylohyoid ligaments and the arteries visibly stretched with modest head and neck movements. Histology revealed variable degrees of smooth muscle disarray in the tunica media of two of the arteries with loop deficiencies. The circumference of one of the straight arteries was smaller than expected but in all other measured histomorphometric parameters these vessels appeared normal. CONCLUSIONS--Vertebral artery loops are deficient in a number of subjects. This finding is important given the recently described biomechanical susceptibility of the vertebral artery to longitudinal extension and may explain the smooth muscle changes, in that this may represent attempts at arterial wall remodelling. Subjects with such loop deficiencies may be more susceptible to a variety of head and neck insults and such abnormalities should be sought at necropsy in subjects who die as a result of fatal vertebral artery injury.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/jcp.48.7.637","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2007,6,9]],"date-time":"2007-06-09T00:50:46Z","timestamp":1181350246000},"page":"637-640","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["A necropsy and histomorphometric study of abnormalities in the course of the vertebral artery associated with ossified stylohyoid ligaments."],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"48","author":[{"given":"C P","family":"Johnson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"M","family":"Scraggs","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"T","family":"How","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"J","family":"Burns","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[1995,7,1]]},"reference":[{"year":"1994","key":"ref_1","unstructured":"December 1994"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"133","article-title":"Gross morphology and pathoanatomy of the vertebral arteries","volume":"14","author":"Thiel, H.W.","year":"1991","unstructured":"Thiel HW. Gross morphology and pathoanatomy of the vertebral arteries. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 1991;14: 133-41.","journal-title":"J Manipulative Physiol Ther"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"987","DOI":"10.1212\/WNL.38.6.987","article-title":"Vertebral artery dissection","volume":"38","author":"Hart, R.G.","year":"1988","unstructured":"Hart RG. Vertebral artery dissection. Neurology 1988;38: 987-9.","journal-title":"Neurology"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"840","DOI":"10.1097\/00007632-198711000-00003","article-title":"Vertebral artery damage complicating cervical manipulation","volume":"12","author":"Fast, A.; Zinicola, D.F.; Marin, E.L.","year":"1987","unstructured":"Fast A, Zinicola DF, Marin EL. Vertebral artery damage complicating cervical manipulation. Spine 1987;12:840-2.","journal-title":"Spine"},{"key":"ref_5","first-page":"851","article-title":"Pathogenesis of vertebral artery occlusion following cervical spine manipulation","volume":"111","author":"Sherman, M.R.; Smialek, J.E.; Zane, W.E.","year":"1987","unstructured":"Sherman MR, Smialek JE, Zane WE. Pathogenesis of vertebral artery occlusion following cervical spine manipulation. Arch Pathol Lab Med 1987;111:851-3.","journal-title":"Arch Pathol Lab Med"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1000","DOI":"10.1136\/jcp.46.11.1000","article-title":"Histomorphometry in the assessment offatal vertebral artery dissection","volume":"46","author":"Johnson, C.P.; Lawler, W.; Burns, J.","year":"1993","unstructured":"Johnson CP, Lawler W, Burns J. Histomorphometry in the assessment offatal vertebral artery dissection. Jf Clin Pathol 1993;46:1000-3.","journal-title":"Jf Clin Pathol"},{"key":"ref_7","series-title":"Proceedings of the 12th Congress of the International Academy of Forensic and Social Medicine","first-page":"495","article-title":"Traumatic sub-arachnoid haemorrhage","author":"Gee, D.J.","year":"1982","unstructured":"Gee DJ. Traumatic sub-arachnoid haemorrhage. Proceedings of the 12th Congress of the International Academy of Forensic and Social Medicine. Vienna: Egermann, 1982:495-8."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1400","DOI":"10.1136\/jcp.38.12.1400","article-title":"A technique for removal of the vertebral arteries","volume":"38","author":"Bromilow, A.; Bums, J.","year":"1985","unstructured":"Bromilow A, Bums J. A technique for removal of the vertebral arteries. J Clin Pathol 1985;38:1400-2.","journal-title":"J Clin Pathol"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"165","DOI":"10.1097\/00000433-199306000-00014","article-title":"The medicolegal significance of proteoglycan accumulation in the tunica media ofthe vertebral artery","volume":"14","author":"Johnson, C.P.; Burns, J.","year":"1993","unstructured":"Johnson CP, Burns J. The medicolegal significance of proteoglycan accumulation in the tunica media ofthe vertebral artery. Am J Forensic Med Pathol 1993;14:165-9.","journal-title":"Am J Forensic Med Pathol"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"236","DOI":"10.1159\/000146760","article-title":"Variations in the extracranial origin of the human vertebral artery","volume":"135","author":"Cavdar, S.; Arisan, E.","year":"1989","unstructured":"Cavdar S, Arisan E. Variations in the extracranial origin of the human vertebral artery. Acta Anat 1989;135:236-8.","journal-title":"Acta Anat"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"287","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00588183","article-title":"Duplicated origin of right vertebral artery with rudimentary and accessory left vertebral arteries","volume":"34","author":"Takasato, Y.; Hayashi, H.; Kobayashi, T.; Hashimoto, Y.","year":"1992","unstructured":"Takasato Y, Hayashi H, Kobayashi T, Hashimoto Y. Duplicated origin of right vertebral artery with rudimentary and accessory left vertebral arteries. Neuroradiology 1992; 34:287-9.","journal-title":"Neuroradiology"},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"454","article-title":"Two cases of the vertebral artery without passing through foramen transversarium of the atlas","volume-title":"Tokyo MedJ7","volume":"95","author":"Takenchi, S.; Komiya, Y.; Nakajima, S.; Hayami, H.","year":"1980","unstructured":"Takenchi S, Komiya Y, Nakajima S, Hayami H. Two cases of the vertebral artery without passing through foramen transversarium of the atlas. Tokyo MedJ7 1980;95:454-61."},{"key":"ref_13","first-page":"207","article-title":"The poor biomechanical response of the vertebral artery to applied longitudinal stress","volume":"173","author":"Johnson, C.P.; How, T.; Scraggs, M.; Burns, J.","year":"1994","unstructured":"Johnson CP, How T, Scraggs M, Burns J. The poor biomechanical response of the vertebral artery to applied longitudinal stress [abstract]. J Pathol 1994;173(Suppl): 207A.","journal-title":"J Pathol"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"313","DOI":"10.1017\/S0317167100022824","article-title":"Dysplastic vertebral artery with paradoxical infarction","volume":"7","author":"Curry, B.; Sima, A.A.F.","year":"1980","unstructured":"Curry B, Sima AAF. Dysplastic vertebral artery with paradoxical infarction. Can 7 Neurol Sci 1980;7:313-16.","journal-title":"Can 7 Neurol Sci"},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"205","article-title":"The development of the cranial arteries in the human embryo","volume":"32","author":"Padget, D.H.","year":"1948","unstructured":"Padget DH. The development of the cranial arteries in the human embryo. Contnib Embryol 1948;32:205-61.","journal-title":"Contnib Embryol"}],"container-title":["Journal of Clinical Pathology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1136\/jcp.48.7.637","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,6]],"date-time":"2025-12-06T08:52:00Z","timestamp":1765011120000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/jcp.bmj.com\/lookup\/doi\/10.1136\/jcp.48.7.637"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[1995,7]]},"references-count":15,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[1995,7,1]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[1995,7]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1136\/jcp.48.7.637"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/jcp.48.7.637","relation":{},"ISSN":["0021-9746","1472-4146"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0021-9746"},{"type":"electronic","value":"1472-4146"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[1995,7]]}}}