A rare case of positional changes of carotid artery depicted within a single MR study and a wandering carotid artery depicted on a serial MR studies

Abstract

The retropharyngeal carotid artery (RCA) is a relatively rare anatomical malposition, and positional changes in the RCA is also extremely rare. In addition, there are some reports of "wandering carotid artery" which means that the carotid artery reciprocate positional changes (wandering) between its normal position and retropharyngeal regions, during follow-up evaluations. A male patient in his 50s with a chief complaint of globus pharyngeus. A pulsatile swelling of the posterior pharyngeal wall of the right side was found on clinical examination. In this case, the right carotid artery showed the clinical course of a wandering carotid artery, which reciprocated between its normal position and the retropharyngeal space during three serial MR investigations. Interestingly, both the most recent MR study and the MR study performed 4 years ago showed that the carotid artery at the level of the hyoid bone moved laterally (positional normalization) during the single MR investigation. This is a first case which showed a rare clinical course of a wandering carotid artery on serial follow-up MR studies and positional changes of carotid artery within a single MR study. It is important for clinicians to be aware of these phenomena, in order to avoid fatal and unexpected complications during clinical procedures.

Keywords: MRI; Retropharyngeal carotid artery; Retropharyngeal space; Wandering carotid artery.