Pulmonary Arterial Anatomical Patterns: A Classification Scheme Based on Lobectomy and 3D-CTBA

Preoperative evaluation of pulmonary vascular and tracheal routes and variations is of great importance to the surgeon. Three-dimensional computed tomography bronchography and angiography (3D-CTBA) has evolved in recent years with the optimization of 3D reconstruction techniques and artificial intelligence. We aim to apply CT angiography and Exoview 3D reconstruction technology to assess patients' pulmonary arterial tree and its anatomical variants and to try to summarize a set of anatomical typing of the pulmonary arterial tree that is relatively easy and conducive to promoting teaching based on surgical habits of lobectomy.

A total of 358 patients hospitalized in the Department of Thoracic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University between July 2020 and August 2021 were included in this study. We carefully analyzed the site of emanation, alignment, and number of branches of the pulmonary artery according to a uniform classification method in conjunction with the two-dimensional CT images and transformed them into 3D reconstruction models.

Different types of pulmonary artery were observed in 358 cases. We evaluated the complete pulmonary artery tree and counted the number and frequency of major arteries of the pulmonary based on the surgical habits of anatomical lobectomy.

The 3D-CTBA technique enables us to adequately assess the anatomy of the pulmonary arteries. Moreover, we provide a practical classification scheme of pulmonary arterial anatomical patterns based on lobectomy and 3D-CTBA. Our data can be used by clinicians in the teaching of pulmonary artery anatomy and the preoperative preparation for anatomical lobectomy.