Reply:

We appreciate the interest and comments by Dr. Vitek regarding our article¹ on the misnomer of the so-called “bovine aortic arch” variant in humans. As mentioned by Dr. Vitek, we were unable to discover who originally coined the term “bovine arch.” However, this was not due to a lack of effort on the part of the authors. In fact, we polled a number of the most “seasoned” neuroradiologists around the country, and none of them knew the origin of the term. We also interrogated a multitude of articles and texts on the subject of human aortic arch variations, dating back to the early 1900s. Unfortunately, these were also unrevealing.

We agree that it is strange that someone would name this particular aortic arch variation in humans a “bovine arch” without knowing the aortic arch configuration of a cow. We really have no idea what the person who coined the term had in mind; therefore, the continued use of this term is of no clear value. As for Dr. Vitek's assumption that the bovine arch was intended to describe the appearance of a cow's head with horns, resemblance is clearly in the eye of the beholder. Growing up, I (K.F.L) spent many days working with cattle on a farm in rural Oklahoma. I am quite certain I have never seen a cow's head that resembles the bovine arch variant.

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