Great blood vessels anomalies at thoracic inlet with CT scan

Abstract EN

Over the past decade, faster computed tomography (CT) scan, thinner collimation, and the development of multi detector computed tomography (MDCT), coupled with the increasing capability of computers to process large amounts of data in short periods of time, have lead to an expansion in the ability to create diagnostically useful twodimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) images within the thoracic inlet.

The objectives of the present study were to identify the CT angiographic appearances of vascular system and study the variable appearance of arterial and venous anatomy in thoracic inlet on contrastenhanced, upper chest CT.

In four hundred thirty-five patients who underwent spiral CT scan for either neck or thorax.

The patients had different clinical symptoms.

The cases included patients examined both with dual detectors row helical CT scanner and scanners that have a 16 detectors row configuration.

Interpretation of axial and reformatted coronal and sagigttal images were done by experts.

The results revealed that normal pattern of the great blood vessels were observed in 85.1% of study group and right internal thoracic vein draining into SVC were observed in 3.4% of study group.

Bovine aortic arch was observed in 8.5 %, while in 0.9 % the left vertebral artery originated directly from the arch of the aorta.

Aberrant right subclavian and thyroideama were observed in 0.3 % for each.

Conclusion: CT imaging appeared helpful in demonstrating the great vessels anomalies.

KEYWORDS; Great blood vessel, Anomalies, Computed tomography, Spiral CT.