Lea Alhilali, MD Profile picture
Nov 21, 2022 17 tweets 8 min read Read on X
1/Ready for a throwdown? MMA fights get a lot of attention, but MMA (middle meningeal art) & dural blood supply doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

A #tweetorial on dural vascular #anatomy

#neurosurgery #neurorad #Neurointervention #radres #medtwitter #neurotwitter #meded Image
2/Everyone knows about the blood supply to the brain. Circle of Willis anatomy is king and loved by everyone, while the vascular anatomy of the blood supply to the dura is the poor, wicked step child of vascular anatomy that is often forgotten Image
3/But dural vascular anatomy & supply are important, especially now that MMA embolizations are common for chronic recurrent subdurals. It also important for understanding dural arteriovenous fistulas as well. Image
4/Although we talk about individual vessels feeding the dura, it should actually be thought of more as a vascular network. Anastomoses among the dural vessels are common and plentiful, as is often seen with external carotid networks. Image
5/The largest & most important dural vessel is the middle meningeal artery or MMA. It arises from the internal maxillary artery or IMAX. I remember that b/c Mortal Kombat & other MMA type fighting is commonly shown in IMAX theaters. Image
6/MMA enters at foramen spinosum.

At the skullbase, foramen ovale & spinosum together look like a high heel shoe footprint

Spinosum is the heel of the footprint. I remember this b/c that’s the high heel spike and SPinosum & SPike sound alike. I always look for this footprint Image
7/After spinosum, the MMA takes a sharp, corkscrew-like turn lateral & anterior following the curvature of the middle cranial fossa.

This gives it a very characteristic angiographic appearance—always look for the sharp turn.

I remember that the artery SPINs after SPINosum Image
8/MMA immediately gives off a tiny petrous branch and then splits into anterior (frontal) & posterior (parietal) divisions. I think it looks like an MMA fighter celebrating their victory with their two arms in the air Image
9/Post division is smaller & has branches covering the posterior convexity. Its territory is draped over the back of the calvarium the way MMA fighters drape flags over their backs after winning. So it covers the back of the calvarium like the flag covers the MMA fighter’s back Image
10/Ant division is larger & has branches that anastomose to the contralateral MMA. You can remember this b/c opposing MMA fighters touch gloves before the fight, and gloves are out in front. So ant division touches the opposite side like opponents touching gloves before a fight Image
11/Anterior division passes under the pterion, a junction of four calvarial bones. This renders it vulnerable to trauma & resulting epidural hemorrhage. This is easy to remember—the forward facing or anterior part of an MMA fighter (his face) is very vulnerable to injury Image
12/Posterior meningeal artery is much smaller than the MMA. It arises from the ascending pharyngeal artery and supplies the dura to the posterior fossa. It also has anastomoses with the posterior division of the MMA. Image
13/You can remember its origin bc TONSILS are in the PHARYNX, so the ascending PHARYNGEAL supplies the dural around the cerebellar TONSILS (posterior fossa) Image
14/Anterior meningeal artery is also much smaller than the MMA. It arises from both the anterior and posterior ethmoidal arteries. It supplies the dura of the anterior cranial fossa. It has many anastomoses with the frontal branches of the MMA Image
15/You can remember its origin bc the anterior meningeal artery supplies the dura overlying the ethmoids, so it would make sense it arises from the ethmoidal arteries Image
16/Uniquely, as it ascends, the anterior meningeal artery actually runs in the wall of the anterior superior sagittal sinus. It is the only named artery to run in the wall of a sinus. Image
17/Now you know the anatomy of the major arterial supply to the dura & their territories. So the next time someone questions you about dural blood supply, you can attack it MMA style! Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Lea Alhilali, MD

Lea Alhilali, MD Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @teachplaygrub

May 2
1/Do radiologists sound like they are speaking a different language when they talk about MRI?

T1 shortening what? T2 prolongation who?

Here’s a translation w/an introductory thread to MRI. Image
2/Let’s start w/T1—it is #1 after all! T1 is for anatomy

Since it’s anatomic, brain structures will reflect the same color as real life

So gray matter is gray on T1 & white matter is white on T1

So if you see an image where gray is gray & white is white—you know it’s a T1 Image
3/T1 is also for contrast

Contrast material helps us to see masses

Contrast can’t get into normal brain & spine bc of the blood brain barrier—but masses don’t have a blood brain barrier, so when you give contrast, masses will take it up & light up, making them easier to see. Image
Read 20 tweets
Apr 28
1/Asking “How old are you?” can be dicey—both in real life & on MRI! Do you know how to tell the age of blood on MRI?

Here’s a thread on how to date blood on MRI so that the next time you see a hemorrhage, your guess on when it happened will always be in the right vein! Image
2/If you ask someone how to date blood on MRI, they’ll spit out a crazy mnemonic about babies that tells you what signal blood should be on T1 & T2 imaging by age.

But mnemonics are crutch—they help you memorize, but not understand. If you understand, you don’t need to memorizeImage
3/If you look at the mnemonic, you will notice one thing—the T1 signal is all you need to tell if blood is acute, subacute or chronic.

T2 signal will tell if it is early or late in each of those time periods—but that type of detail isn’t needed in real life

So let’s look at T1Image
Read 20 tweets
Apr 25
1/Radiologist not answering the phone?

Just want a quick read on that stat head CT?

Here's a little help on how to do it yourself w/a thread on how to read a head CT! Image
2/In bread & butter neuroimaging—CT is the bread—maybe a little bland, not super exciting—but necessary & you can get a lot of nutrition out of it

MRI is like the butter—everyone loves it, it makes everything better, & it packs a lot of calories. Today, we start w/the bread! Image
3/The most important thing to look for on a head CT is blood.

Blood is Bright on a head CT—both start w/B.

Blood is bright bc for all it’s Nobel prizes, all CT is is a density measurement—and blood is denser (thicker) than water & denser things are brighter on CT Image
Read 20 tweets
Apr 23
1/Time to FESS up! Do you understand functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS)?

If you read sinus CTs, you better know what the surgeon is doing or you won’t know what you’re doing!

Here’s a thread to make sure you always make the important findings! Image
2/The first step is to insert the endoscope into the nasal cavity.

The first two structures encountered are the nasal septum and the inferior turbinate. Image
3/So on every sinus CT you read, the first question is whether there is enough room to insert the scope.

Will it go in smoothly or will it be a tight fit? Image
Read 19 tweets
Apr 21
1/Ready for a throw down?

MMA fights get a lot of attention, but MMA (middle meningeal art) & dural blood supply doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

A thread on dural vascular anatomy! Image
2/Everyone knows about the blood supply to the brain.

Circle of Willis anatomy is king and loved by everyone, while the vascular anatomy of the blood supply to the dura is the poor, wicked step child of vascular anatomy that is often forgotten Image
3/But dural vascular anatomy & supply are important, especially now that MMA embolizations are commonly for chronic recurrent subdurals.

It also important for understanding dural arteriovenous fistulas as well. Image
Read 17 tweets
Apr 16
1/ Need a global perspective on dementia?

Do you know the global cortical atrophy (GCA) score for evaluating dementia patients—or are you still gestalting volume loss???

Don’t estimate when you can calculate!

Here’s a thread of what you need to know about the GCA score! Image
2/The global cortical atrophy score calculates cortical volume loss on a scale of 0-3 in 13 different regions & ventricular dilatation

Gyri shrink down w/atrophy, the same way your cheeks shrink down with aging! Image
3/Gyri look like lips with around a mouth of sulcal space.

Without volume loss, the gyri look like big fat pursed model lips

But w/volume loss they open up like the scream w/thinning of the lips Image
Read 9 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(