Incidental Finding of a Duplicated Vertebral Artery Followed by a Spinal Dural Arteriovenous Fistula on Spinal Angiography

Duplicated origin of the vertebral artery (VA) is an extremely rare normal anatomic variant. While most often considered non-pathological, duplicated origin carries an increased risk of dissection. An association with vascular pathologies such as aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, and AV fistulas has been suggested. The objective is to describe this unusual anatomic variant with is concomitant vascular pathology and review current literature. The authors report a case of incidentally-discovered duplicated origin of the left VA in patients with a spinal dural arteriovenous fistula (dAVF). A 61-year-old man with a history significant for sarcoidosis presented with progressive lower extremity weakness and paresthesias. MRI of the thoracic spine demonstrated significant confluent edema and patchy contrast enhancement in the caudal spinal cord and conus medullaris which did not appear related to the patient's neurosarcoidosis. A diagnostic spinal angiogram incidentally demonstrated that the left V1 segment had a duplicated origin, one branch arising from the aortic arch and the other branch arising from the left subclavian artery, with union at the C5 transverse foramen. This finding represented an incidental anomaly discovery was noted to be incidental and was not believed to be related to the patients underlying pathology. Subsequently, a dAVF was discovered, originating from the right T7 spinal artery. Location of this vascular malformation directly correlated with the patient’s symptoms. The patient then underwent embolization of the spinal dAVF and recovered uneventfully. Duplicated origin of the VA is an extremely rare but well-described variant, most commonly involving the left VA. To our knowledge, this is the only reported spinal dAVF associated with duplicated origin of the left VA. An association with other pathological entities has been suggested, and thus this case adds to a growing body of cases characterizing these relationships.