Shigeki Mizukami

The superficial ulnar artery originating from the axillary artery

An anomalous superficial ulnar artery was found during anatomical dissection in the right arm of an 83-year-old Japanese woman. It originated in the axillary artery, crossed over the median nerve, coursed ventral to the median nerve and the brachial artery, but superficial to the bicipital aponeurosis and the flexor muscles. At the palm it formed the superficial and deep palmar arches together with the branches of the radial artery. The brachial artery divided into the radial and common interosseous arteries in the cubital fossa.

Retroesophageal right subclavian artery originating from the aortic arch distal and dorsal to the left subclavian artery.

In the cadaver of a Japanese 79 year-old man a retroesophageal right subclavian artery was observed to be derived from the arch of the aorta slightly distal and dorsal to the left subclavian artery. Its origin formed Kommerells arterial diverticulum (50 mm in circumference), and it passed between the esophagus and the vertebral column and continued to the right to become the axillary artery. No right recurrent laryngeal nerve was observed. There was a right ansa subclavia around the subclavian artery. Although this anomaly is relatively rare, it is important as a cause of dysphagia lusoria.

Posterior sinus node artery and accessory atrioventricular node artery arising by a common origin: A case report

We describe herein a rare and hitherto not reported variation, found in a Japanese male cadaver, in which a posterior sinus node (SN) artery and an accessory atrioventricular node (AN) artery originate from a common trunk branching from the posterior segment of the circumflex artery. After arising in this manner, the posterior SN artery passed in a clockwise direction around the posterior, lateral, and finally anterior wall of the left atrium to the sinus venosus, giving off a branch to the SN from posteriorly. The accessory AN artery coursed in a counterclockwise direction on the posterior wall of the left atrium as far as the crux of the heart, where it bent anterosuperiorly and continued within the interatrial septum. It entered the AN from superiorly and, crossing deep to the principal AN artery, reached the inferior and superficial portion of this node. It could be considered that the accessory AN artery in this study is a modified version of arteries entering and coursing in the interatrial septum, as exemplified by Kugels anastomotic artery. Clin. Anat. 11:106–111, 1998.