ANGIOARCHITECTURE OF HUMAN VISUAL CORTEX / 解剖学报

ABSTRACT

In order to observe the pial and intracortical vessels in the upper and lower lips of calcarine sulcus, the normal human visual cortex of 15 brains (30 sides) were studied with scanning electron microscope (SEM), staining for alkaline phosphatase activity, continuous arterio-venous perfusion and clearing of thick sections according to Malligan's procedure. The results are (1) Superficial pial arteries on visual cortex originate from calcarine artery, parieto-occipital artery, and inferior posterior temporal artery. Their branches destribute on the surface of the upper and lower lips of the calcarine sulcus resembling a comb. Two types of arterial anastomoses were found. The pial veins of the upper lip of the calcarine sulcus empty into the medial parieto-occipital vein, while those of the lower lip empty mostly into the medial occipital vein. (2) Intracortical arteries might be divided into five groups, i.e, short cortical artery, middle cortical artery, long cortical artery, subcortical artery and medullary artery. In general, they send out forward and recurrent branches. Veins might also be classified into five groups accordingly. There are four layers of vascular network within the striate cortex. The 3rd layer was clearly divided into sublayer 3a, 3b, 3c. The capillary density of the sublayer 3b is with lower density, which is just situated in Gennari's band. Angioarchitecture in the unstriate cortex is loosely arranged. The vascular density of each layer has been measured. The relationship between the blood supply of visual cortex and its clinical significance has been discussed as well.