Relationship of the celiac and superior mesenteric arteries to the vertebral bodies and its clinical relevance.

To determine the relationship of the origins of the celiac artery (CA) and superior mesenteric artery (SMA) to the vertebral bodies, and their distribution in males and females, we examined them quantitatively on the angiograms of 1,591 patients (male 1,003, female 588). Our results showed that the origins of the CA and SMA were highly variable: 14.0% of the CA originated beyond the extent of the lower half of T12 to the upper part of L1, and 24.7% of the SMA originated beyond the level of L1. The origin of the SMA was more variable than that of the CA (p < 0.01). The variation in the origin of the CA was not significantly different (p > 0.05) between males (13.4%) and females (15.1%), but a statistically significant difference (p < 0.01) between males (22.3%) and females (28.7%) was shown for the SMA. The distance between the origin of the two arteries was over 3 cm in six patients (0.4%). Our results provide a valuable reference for clinical practice.