title: Normal appearance of the esophagus in sagittal section; measurement of the anteroposterior diameter with ECG gated MR imaging.
abstract: Sagittal images are valuable for determining the location and local extent of esophageal tumors. However, the normal appearance of the esophagus in sagittal section has not yet been analyzed well, although there have been a few reports on normal esophagus in the axial plane. In this study, the anteroposterior (AP) diameter of normal thoracic esophagus was measured in sagittal images using ECG gated magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and compared with that of cadavers. In 78 subjects, 222 of 234 portions (95%) were depicted well when the esophagus was divided into three portions (upper thoracic, middle thoracic, and lower thoracic and abdominal). Almost all the AP diameters (96%) were within 15-16 mm. The data correlated well with the measurements in cadavers. The AP diameter of normal thoracic esophagus in sagittal section was considered to be up to 16 mm. These results might be of clinical use to evaluate the location and extent of esophageal tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Japan.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakashima
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakashima
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kakishita
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004947:Esophagus / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies