[Tortuosity of the internal carotid artery].

The character and frequency of internal carotid artery deformities on the neck were examined on 1009 arteriograms taken from patients suffering from various cerebral pathologies. Prevalence of convolution and looping of the artery was noted in patients with hypertensive hemorrhages (37%), hemorrhages due to intracranial sacculated aneurysms (35%), and, to a lesser extent, in patients with spontaneous subarachnoidal hemorrhages (19%), intracranial tumours (25%) and traumatic subdural hematomas (22%). This was, probably, due to age-related peculiarities of the vessel structure. It is supposed that the above deformities of the internal carotid artery are an extreme type of the structure that may be either congenital, or acquired. Since such deformities are rather frequent (25 to 30%) they should be regarded not as manifestations of a pathology, but rather as peculiarities of the vessel structure associated with age.