The morphology of bronchial artery within lesion in lung cancer diagnosis

Objective:To assess the value of vascular morphology feature of bronchial arteries within pulmonary lesions in the diagnosis of pulmonary diseases with MSCT.Methods:The data of 193 patients including 124 with lung cancer(lung cancer group)and 69 with pulmonary inflammatory lessions(control group)were analyzed retrospectively.All patients underwent enhanced MSCT and the lesions involved segmental or lobar bronchi.The original images were processed using volume rendering(VR),multiplanar reconstruction(MPR)or maxium intensity projection(MIP).Spatial anatomical characters of the bronchial arteries were observed by 2chest radiologists with more than 5years of experience in chest radiology by consensus.The differences of the morphological characteristics of bronchial artery between lung cancer group and control group were analyzed withχ2 test.Results:Bronchial arteries within lesions were displayed in 109 of the 193 cases,including 80 in lung cancer group and 29 in control group.The morphologic features of bronchial arteries in lesions included interruption(19cases in lung cancer group and 3cases in control group),bending(52cases in lung cancer group and 36 cases in control group),tortuosity(22cases in lung cancer group and 2cases in control group)and vascular leak(29cases in lung cancer group and none in control group).The display rate of tortuosity and vascular leak in lung cancer group was significantly higher than that in control group(P=0.034,P=0.000;P0.05).Conclusion:The CT angiography can reveal the morphologic features of bronchial arteries in pulmonary lesions clearly.The morphology of bronchial arteries is valuable for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of lung cancer.