Mapping the territory of the anterior choroidal artery

The anterior choroidal artery is a branch of the internal carotid artery and to a lesser extent the middle cerebral artery. It supplies the area from the posterior limb of the internal capsule, part of optic thalamus, chiasm/radiation and choroidal plexus. This artery has been of interest in movement disorder with earlier ideas on occluding this artery as surgical treatment for Parkinson's disease. The current focus is the involvement of the anterior choroidal artery in subcortical stroke. Works by others and our group have enabled creation of am arterial template for the lenticulostriate artery. Those works have led to evaluation of the arteries associated with subcortical 'lacunar' infarcts in the population and among patients with monogenic disorder associated with small vessel disease such as CADASIL. However, an arterial template for this study is still lacking. This project seeks to create an arterial template for the anterior choroidal artery as well as providing a map of the territory of this artery in stereotactic space.