Research Information System
Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, vol.11, no.1, pp.51-59, 2005 (SCI-Expanded)
Purpose: To assess the role of multislice CT angiography in the evaluation of arterial, hepatic and portal venous variations in potential right lobe donors. Materials and methods: Fifty-two potential liver donors (28 females, 24 males), underwent CT angiography in the arterial and portal venous phases with an eight-row CT scanner. Two-and three-dimensional images were obtained from 1.25-mm-thick axial images with multiplanar reformatting, maximum intensity projection and volume rendering techniques. Both axial and two- and three-dimensional images were evaluated for possible variants of hepatic vasculature. In twelve operated patients, CT angiography results were compared with the results of surgery. Results: Of 52 patients, 40 had type I, five type III, two type II, three type IX, and two type V hepatic arterial anatomy. In 13 patients (25%), segment IV artery originated from the right hepatic artery. In 26 patients (50%), veins that drained segment V and/or VIII to the middle hepatic vein were larger than 5 mm. Twenty-five patients (48%) had 28 accessory hepatic veins larger than 3 mm; 23 of these drained to the inferior vena cava more than 4 cm caudal to the right hepatic vein-vena cava junction. Three patients (6%) had trifurcation and one patient (2%) had quadrifurcation of the main portal vein. In two patients (4%), the right posterior portal vein arose directly from the main portal vein before its bifurcation. CT angiography findings showed one-to-one correlation with surgery in the 12 operated patients. Conclusion: Multislice CT angiography can successfully show the relevant hepatic vascular variations in potential liver donors. © Turkish Society of Radiology 2005.