[The morphological changes in the wall of the carotid and vertebral arteries in pathological kinks and loops].

The clinical data (1300 patients angiographically examined and 738 operations performed for pathologic coiling of the carotid and vertebral arteries) together with histologic studies of 50 resected segments of pathologically changed arteries showed the considerable degenerative changes in the arterial wall at the site of the loops and kinks, caused by the hemodynamic overload. The data suggest the congenital nature of the loops and certain kinks of the carotid and vertebral arteries. Other kinks of these arteries result from changes associated with age, osteochondrotic shortening of the cervical vertebral column and arterial hypertension.