[THREE DIMENSIONAL VISUAL RESEARCH OF THORACIC DORSAL ARTERY BASED ON CT ANGIOGRAPHY]

To study the digital anatomy and application value of the thoracic dorsal artery based on CT angiography (CTA).

Between September 2012 and June 2014, aorta CTA images were chosen from 10 cases (20 sides) undergoing aorta CTA. By using Mimics 17.0 software for three dimensional (3D) reconstruction of image post-processing, the digital vascular anatomical information were obtained after observing and measuring the origin of the thoracic dorsal artery, the number of perforators, type, inner diameter, and pedicle length; and the body surface location of perforator vessel was determined, and then the thoracic dorsal artery perforators tissue flap harvesting was simulated.

3D reconstruction images showed that the thoracic dorsal artery originated from subscapular artery, 76 perforator vessels were found, including 32 perforators (42.1%) from the medial branch of the thoracic dorsal artery and 44 perforators (57.9%) from the lateral branch of the thoracic dorsal artery, of which 69 were intramuscular perforators (90.8%) and 7 were direct skin artery (9.2%). The inner diameter of the thoracic dorsal artery was (1.69 ± 0.23) mm, and its pedicle length was (2.12 ± 0.64) cm. The first lateral perforator of the thoracic dorsal artery located at (1.65 ± 0.42) cm above the horizontal line of the inferior angle of scapula and at (1.68 ± 0.31) cm lateral to vertical line of the inferior angle of scapula. The first medial perforator located at (1.43 ± 0.28) cm above the horizontal line of the inferior angle of scapula and at (1.41 ± 0.28) cm lateral to vertical line of the inferior angle of scapula. The thoracic dorsal artery perforators flap harvesting was successfully simulated.

CTA is a more intuitive method to study the thoracic dorsal artery in vivo, it can clearly display 3D information of the main blood supply artery course and distribution after flap reconstruction, so it can effectively and accurately guide the design of the flap.