Main thoracic vascular abnormalities and variations

Objective: To determine presence and frequency of abnormalities and variations related to main thoracic vascular structures on chest examinations of patients, which were performed on a high technology computer tomography apparatus with 64 detectors.Materials and methods: Chest computed tomography examinations of 2479 patients, 1389 male and 1090 female, performed at radiology department of Dicle University Medical Faculty between May 2006 and October 2007, were evaluated retrospectively. No abnormality or variation was determined on examinations of 1588 patients.Results: No abnormality or variation was detected in 1588 (% 64.1) of 2479 patients. The most common variation, determined in 838 (% 33.8) patients, was common aortic origin of right brachiocephalic trunk and left main carotid artery as a solitary radix.Seventy four (% 3.0) of 2479 patients had left vertebral artery directly originating from aorta. In addition, 33 of these patients had common aortic origin of right brachiocephalic trunk and left main carotid artery.Conclusion: A high technology product of multislice computed tomography enables determination of thoracic vascular abnormalities and variations, and eliminates necessity of diagnostic invasive angiography.