CT diagnosis of mediastinal and thoracic inlet venous obstruction. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The diagnosis of mediastinal or thoracic inlet venous obstruction can be made reliably by chest computed tomography (CT), and depends on the opacification of collateral venous channels during the continuous infusion of intravenous contrast media. The sectional anatomy of these collateral pathways is illustrated by examples from 50 consecutive patients. An understanding of this anatomy facilitates the diagnosis of obstruction of the superior vena cava or its major tributaries during routine chest CT. Although CT was inferior to contrast venography in opacifying peripheral collateral veins and determining the degree of obstruction, the information provided by CT obviated venography in most patients in this series. CT may be the initial procedure of choice in suspected mediastinal venous obstruction.

publication date

  • September 1, 1983

Research

keywords

  • Collateral Circulation
  • Thrombosis
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed
  • Vena Cava, Superior

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0020552764

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.2214/ajr.141.3.521

PubMed ID

  • 6603762

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 141

issue

  • 3