Morphological analysis of bronchial arteries and variants with computed tomography angiography, and its relevance in the treatment of massive hemoptysis

Abstract

Massive hemoptysis is a life‐threatening clinical event. Its main etiology is secondary to rupture of the bronchial arteries and rarely from other systemic arteries or the pulmonary artery. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of anatomical variants of bronchial arteries using computed tomographic angiography in a population of northeastern Mexico.Materials and MethodsAn observational, transversal, descriptive, comparative, retrospective study was performed using 139 imaging studies of Mexican patients in which we evaluated the following parameters from the left and right bronchial arteries: artery origin, branching pattern, arterial ostium, vertebral level of origin, diameter, and mediastinal trajectory.ResultsThe anatomy of the bronchial arteries was similar in both genders, except distribution for vertebral origin level (p 0.006) and the diameter (p 0.013). Left and right arteries were similar, except for the mediastinal trajectory in reference to the esophagus (p <0.001) as well as the arterial diameter (p <0.001).ConclusionOur study is the first to assess comprehensively by computed angiotomography the anatomy of the bronchial arteries, common trunks and intercostobronquiales trunks in the same population. We are the first to report all branching patterns found and perform statistical analysis for all parameters according to gender and side.