Background & objective: Angiography, a common method in evaluating blood supply of lung carcinoma, is invasive and complicated, with low success rate for bronchial artery, and could not assure to show all supply blood vessels at a time. This study was to explore clinical value of 16 slices spiral CT angiography with 3-dimensional CT (3DCT) and CT virtual endoscopy (CTVE) in diagnosing and evaluating supply blood vessels and blood supply of lung carcinoma, so as to find a non-invasive, safe, simple and effective method in diagnosing blood supply of lung carcinoma.
Methods: A total of 72 patients with pathologically proved lung carcinoma underwent 16 slices spiral CT angiography with 3DCT. Volume rendering (VR), maximum intensity projection (MIP), and surface shaded display (SSD) of supply blood vessels of lung carcinoma were used as 3DCT models. CTVE of bronchial artery was performed in 25 patients. Color VR of tumor lesion was performed in all patients.
Results: Supply blood vessels were showed in 68 patients, 59 of them showed only bronchial artery, 5 showed intercostals arteries, and 4 showed mixed types, including bronchial artery, intercostals arteries, or branch arteries of subclavian artery. The bronchial artery entered into enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes in 4 patients. CTVE well displayed the orifice and lumen of bronchial arteries in the 25 patients. The extent of red color of tumor lesion on VR color image were divided into 4 types: no color (n=11), light red (n=17), moderate red (n=32), and heavy red (n=12); the added CT values of tumor lesion after enhanced CT were (6.16+/-2.23) Hu, (15.71+/-3.13) Hu, (25.47+/-2.71) Hu, and (44.31+/-19.68) Hu, respectively. The corresponding rate between enhanced type and distributive type of red color on color VR was 86.1%.
Conclusions: The 16 slices spiral CT angiography with 3DCT and CTVE could show clearly supply blood vessels and blood supply of lung carcinoma. It is a non-invasive, simple and effective method in evaluating and diagnosing blood supply of lung carcinoma.