Evaluation of the anomalous retroesophageal left brachiocephalic vein in Chinese children using multidetector CT.
BACKGROUND
Anomalous retroesophageal left brachiocephalic vein is a very rare anomaly of the brachiocephalic vein. At the time of writing only one case had been reported worldwide.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to report four cases of anomalous retroesophageal left brachiocephalic vein and to evaluate the utility of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) for investigation of the anomaly.


METHODS
From June 2005 to May 2008, we examined 2,146 children with congenital heart disease and 4,082 children without congenital heart disease using MDCT. The patients ranged in age from 1 day to 12 years. Maximum intensity projection reconstruction was performed to show the brachiocephalic vein.


RESULTS
A retroesophageal left brachiocephalic vein was found in 4 of the 2,146 patients (0.19%) with congenital heart disease and in 0 of the 4,082 patients without congenital heart disease. In all four patients, the condition was confirmed during surgery for the congenital heart disease.


CONCLUSIONS
MDCT is a good modality for evaluating the anomalous retroesophageal left brachiocephalic vein. An anomalous retroesophageal left brachiocephalic vein was more common in patients with congenital heart disease.
Ming
Zhu
Z
Department of Radiology, Shanghai Children's Medical Center, Shanghai, China. zhuming58@vip.sina.com
Aimin
Sun
S
Rui
He
H
D016121:Brachiocephalic Veins / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004947:Esophagus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010690:Phlebography / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*