Bronchial anatomy of left lung: a study of multi-detector row CT

Familiarity with prevailing pattern and variations in the bronchial tree is not only essential for the anatomist to explain bronchial variation in bronchial specimens, but also useful for guiding bronchoscopy and instructing pulmonary segmental resection. The purpose of this study was designed to demonstrate various branching patterns of left lung with 3D images, with special attention given to identify the major types at transverse thin-section CT. Two hundred and sixteen patients with routine thorax scans were enrolled. The images of bronchial tree, virtual bronchoscopy were reconstructed using post-processing technique of multi-detector row CT. We attempted to classify the segmental bronchi by interpreting the post-processing images, and identified them in transverse thin-section CT. Our results showed that the segmental bronchial ramifications of the left superior lobe were classified into three types mainly, i.e., common stem of apical and posterior segmental bronchi (64%, 138/216); trifurcation (23%, 50/216); common stem of apical and anterior segmental bronchi (10%, 22/216), and they could be identified at two typical sections of transverse thin-section CT. There were two major types in left basal segmental bronchi, i.e., bifurcation (75%, 163/216), trifurcation (18%, 39/216), and they could also be identified at two typical sections of transverse thin-section CT. In conclusion, our study have offered simplified branching patterns of bronchi and demonstrated various unusual bronchial branching patterns perfectly with 3D images, and have also revealed how to identify the main branching patterns in transverse thin-section CT.