Aortic ostia of the bronchial arteries and tracheal bifurcation: MDCT analysis

Table 1 Relation between bronchial arteries ostia from aorta and tracheal bifurcation n (%)

Level from tracheal bifurcation (cm)	Right bronchial artery	Left bronchial artery	Common tract artery
≥ 4, < 4.5	0 (0)	0 (0)	2 (6)
≥ 3.5, < 4	2 (2)	0 (0)	1 (3)
≥ 3, < 3.5	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)
≥ 2.5, < 3	7 (7)	5 (8)	2 (6)
≥ 2, < 2.5	7 (7)	4 (6)	2 (6)
≥ 1.5, < 2	14 (15)	9 (14)	3 (8)
≥ 1, < 1.5	17 (18)	3 (5)	6 (17)
≥ 0.5, < 1	15 (16)	10 (15)	2 (6)
≥ 0, < 0.5	14 (15)	20 (30)	7 (19)
≥ -0.5, < 0	6 (6)	6 (9)	1 (3)
≥ -1, < -0.5	7 (7)	6 (9)	6 (17)
≥ -1.5, < -1	3 (3)	0 (0)	4 (11)
≥ -2, < -1.5	1 (1)	3 (5)	0 (0)
≥ -2.5, < -2	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)
≥ -3, < -2.5	2 (2)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Total (n = 197)	95	66	36

Table 2 Dividing direction of bronchial arteries from descending aorta n (%)

Time o’clock direction
Artery	7	8	9	10	11	12	1	2	Total
Right bronchial	1 (1 )	2 (3)	49 (62)	15 (19)	6 (8)	1 (1)	5 (6)	0 (0)	79
Left bronchial	0 (0)	0 (0)	11 (18)	7 (11)	11 (18)	21 (34)	11 (18)	1 (2)	62
Common tract	0 (0)	0 (0)	4 (13)	3 (10)	5 (16)	14 (45)	5 (16)	0 (0)	31

Table 3 Dividing direction of bronchial arteries from aortic arch n (%)

Artery	Direction			Total
	Right caudal	Left caudal	Middle caudal
Right bronchial	13 (81)	2 (13)	1 (6)	16
Left bronchial	4 (100)	0 (0)	0 (0)	4
Common tract	4 (80)	0 (0)	1 (20)	5

Table 4 Comparisons of bronchial artery findings between pathological and multi-detector row computed tomography studies n (%)

	Pathological study	MDCT study
	Kasai et al[10]	Morita et al[5]	Present study
Right bronchial artery	n = 161	n = 80	n = 96
Direct origin from asrta	44 (27)	15 (19)	28 (29)
Intercostal bronchial trunk	86 (53)	61 (76)	67 (70)
Subclavian artery	31 (19)	4 (5)	1 (1)
Left bronchial artery	n = 117	n = 67	n = 67
Direct origin from asrta	111 (95)	63 (94)	65 (97)
Intercostal bronchial trunk	1 (1)	4 (6)	2 (3)
Subclavian artery	5 (4)	0	0
Common trunk of both bronchial arteries	n = 65	n = 38	n = 36
Direct origin from aorta	/	/	34 (94)
Intercostal bronchial trunk	/	/	2 (6)

Data are numbers of right, left and common trunk arteries. Numbers in parentheses are percentages. MDCT: Multidetector row computed tomography.

Table 5 Numbers of bronchial arteries

	Kasai et al[10] (n = 370)	Cauldwell et al[11] (n = 467)	The present study (n = 234)
No. of right bronchial arteries
0	0	0	1 (1)
1	13 (13)	100 (67)	68 (68)
2	57 (57)	48 (32)	30 (30)
3	22 (22)	1 (0.7)	1 (1)
4	6 (6)	1 (0.7)	0
No. of left bronchial arteries
0	0	0	9 (9)
1	3 (31)	47 (31)	79 (79)
2	59 (59)	93 (62)	12 (12)
3	8 (8)	9 (6)	0
4	2 (2)	1 (0.7)	0