Truncus bicaroticus: an underestimated anatomic variation.

Objectives/hypothesis: To illustrate that a truncus bicaroticus and an elongated truncus brachiocephalicus are underestimated anatomic variations; and to highlight the risk of injury of these vessel anomalies during routine surgical interventions.

Data Source: Report of a woman with long-term ventilation who was planned for conventional surgical tracheostomy. Due to a strong pulsatile vessel crossing the cricoid cartilage, the procedure was stopped.

Reproducibility study of four-dimensional flow MRI of arterial and portal venous liver hemodynamics: influence of spatio-temporal resolution.

Purpose: To evaluate influence of variation in spatio-temporal resolution and scan-rescan reproducibility on three-dimensional (3D) visualization and quantification of arterial and portal venous (PV) liver hemodynamics at four-dimensional (4D) flow MRI.

Methods: Scan-rescan reproducibility of 3D hemodynamic analysis of the liver was evaluated in 10 healthy volunteers using 4D flow MRI at 3T with three different spatio-temporal resolutions (2.4 × 2.

A feasibility study to evaluate splanchnic arterial and venous hemodynamics by flow-sensitive 4D MRI compared with Doppler ultrasound in patients with cirrhosis and controls.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of time-resolved flow-sensitive four-dimensional (4D) MRI for the visualization and quantification of splanchnic arterial and portal venous hemodynamics in patients with cirrhosis and in controls.

Materials And Methods: We applied flow-sensitive 4D MRI to evaluate arterial and portal venous three-dimensional blood flow in patients with advanced liver cirrhosis (n=5) and in healthy controls (n=10) using 3T MRI (spatial resolution=1.7×2.

Venous thoracic outlet syndrome caused by a congenital rib malformation.

Venous thoracic outlet syndrome (VTOS) represents a rare disorder. Hypertrophy of the anterior scalene musculature is the cause of the compression syndrome in most cases. To our knowledge, we describe the first reported case worldwide of a venous compression syndrome caused by a congenital malformation of the 1st and 2nd ribs.

Normal and altered three-dimensional portal venous hemodynamics in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Purpose: To compare time-resolved three-dimensional (3D) phase-contrast magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with three-directional velocity encoding (flow-sensitive four-dimensional [4D] MR imaging), with Doppler ultrasonography (US) as standard of reference, for investigating alterations in 3D portal venous hemodynamics in patients with liver cirrhosis compared with healthy age-matched control subjects and healthy young volunteers.

Material & Methods: This prospective study was approved by the local ethics committee, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Three-dimensional portal venous hemodynamics was assessed, employing flow-sensitive 4D MR imaging with a 3-T MR system (spatial resolution, approximately 2 mm(3); temporal resolution, approximately 45 msec) in 20 patients with hepatic cirrhosis, 20 healthy age-matched control subjects, and 21 healthy young volunteers.

MR-based visualization and quantification of three-dimensional flow characteristics in the portal venous system.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of time-resolved flow-sensitive MRI for the three-dimensional (3D) visualization and quantification of normal and pathological portal venous (PV) hemodynamics.

Materials And Methods: Portal venous hemodynamics were evaluated in 18 healthy volunteers and 5 patients with liver cirrhosis. ECG- and adaptive respiratory navigator gated flow-sensitive 4D MRI (time-resolved 3D MRI with three-directional velocity encoding) was performed on a 3 Tesla MR system (TRIO, Siemens, Germany).