Thyroid ima artery
variably present artery that provides blood to the thyroid gland
The thyroid ima artery (thyroidea ima artery, arteria thyroidea ima, thyroid artery of Neubauer or the lowest thyroid artery) is an artery of the head and neck. It is an anatomical variant that, when present, supplies blood to the thyroid gland primarily, or the trachea, the parathyroid gland and the thymus gland (as thymica accessoria) in rare cases. It has also been reported to be a compensatory artery when one or both of the inferior thyroid arteries are absent, and in a few cases the only source of blood to the thyroid gland. Furthermore, it varies in origin, size, blood supply, and termination, and occurs in around 3.8% of the population and is 4.5 times more common in fetuses than in adults. Because of the variations and rarity, it may lead to surgical complications, particularly during tracheostomy and other airway managements.
Structure
The thyroid ima artery is an embryonic artery and it occurs because of the failure of the vessel to close, remaining patent (open).
The artery has a variable origin. It mostly arises from the brachiocephalic trunk, but may also originate from the aortic arch, the right common carotid, the subclavian, the pericardiacophrenic artery, the thyrocervical trunk, the transverse scapular or the internal thoracic artery. It ascends in front of the trachea in the superior mediastinum to the lower part of the thyroid gland.
It differs in size and ranges from as small as accessory thyroid arteries to the size of primary thyroid vessels.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7799758. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thyroid ima artery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.