July 2017 – Abnormal vs Normal Pulmonary Arteries

View #1 (arrow 1) above shows a total blockage of the right upper pulmonary artery in a curved planar reformat (CPR) on the left and volume-rendering (VR) on the right.

View #2 (arrow 2) above shows a severe narrowing/stenosis of the right lower pulmonary artery in the right lung via a CPR, left image and VR on the right image.

Abnormal:                                                                                     Normal:

The above movies are of 2 different patients for comparison of the main pulmonary arteries to demonstrate abnormal anatomy (left) vs normal anatomy (right).

The VR movie on the left further demonstrates the blockage and stenosis visualized in Views #1 and #2. This patient is a 61 year old scanned to evaluate the pulmonary artery for any abnormality of stenosis (narrowing) and lung parenchyma (lung tissue). 3D reformations consisting of CPR and VR images were performed to corroborate the findings made in the report.

Findings demonstrated:

• View #1 (arrow 1) occlusion of the right upper lobe pulmonary artery
• View #2 (arrow 2)  severe narrowing of the right lower lobe pulmonary artery.
• The movie shown on the right demonstrates for comparison, a normal main pulmonary artery.

Using sophisticated software tools, technologists in the 3DQ Lab create VR and CPR images from the chest CT angiogram to visualize anatomical anomalies and to evaluate vessel patency.