Imaging Challenges in the Diagnosis of Anatomical Variations of the Supra-Aortic Vessels: A Case Report and Review of Literature

A 73-year-old woman was referred to our Cardiology Department due to recurrent headaches and dizziness. She had a history of hypertension of 10 years. In the territorial hospital, left internal carotid artery significant stenosis was suspected. Neurological examination and laboratory tests were normal. A neck vascular ultrasound was performed, showing a low bifurcation of the left common carotid artery (CCA) and a hypoplastic left internal carotid artery (ICA) with a sinuous path at the cervical level. Therefore, a computed tomographic (CT) angiography examination of the head and neck vessels was performed. The images confirmed the presence of a hypoplastic left ICA, anatomic variation in the left CCA, and also showed that the left vertebral artery (VA) was stemming directly from the aortic arch, exhibiting a kinking trajectory.

Bifid Pancreatic Tail: an Anatomical Case Series and their Classification

Anomalies and variants of development of the pancreas are relatively frequent. Bifid pancreatic tail is a rare anatomic variation with only a few cases reported in the literature. The present case series were encountered during dissection of 50 anatomical specimens of the pancreas, spleen, and duodenum. We observed four unusual cases (8%) of bifid pancreatic tail. One case was of a vertically oriented bifid pancreas tail (2%), in another case, the tails here horizontally oriented (2%) and in two cases the bifid tails were horizontally oriented but unequal (4%). The bifid tails had an arterial supply that penetrated the glands between the tails and two out of four were also supplied by the superior horizontal pancreatic artery of Popova. The ductal system usually bifurcated at the level of the tails, but a case of trifurcation was also encountered. The current cases should be taken into account in hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery to avoid misdiagnosis and to comprehensively assess the patient preoperatively.

The Use of the Dorsal Metacarpal Artery for Reconstruction of Distal Dorsal Finger Defects: An Anatomic Study and Clinical Experience

Purpose: Dorsal metacarpal artery (DMA) flaps have been used successfully for distal dorsal finger defects. Some studies have reported inconsistent DMA anatomy, and there have been no studies on the anatomic variation of DMAs in Asian cadavers. Therefore, we evaluated the anatomy of DMA using Korean fresh cadavers and reported the clinical outcomes of the DMA flaps.Methods: In the cadaver study, four human forearms from adult fresh cadavers were dissected. The dorsal metacarpal arteries and their communicating branches were identified. From July 2016 to June 2019, five patients with dorsal finger defects underwent a first DMA (FDMA) flap or a reversed DMA (RDMA) flap.Results: In our cadaver study, the ulnar branch of the FDMA and the second and third DMAs were absent in two of four (50%) of the cadavers. In our case series, five flaps survived, and one had partial necrosis, which healed by the second intention. The mean operation time was approximately 100 minutes, and the mean outpatient follow-up period was 6 months.Conclusion: DMA flaps are a reliable flap for the reconstruction of relatively large soft tissue defects of the dorsal finger. However, in our anatomical study, inconsistency of the anatomy of DMAs was identified. Therefore, preoperative Doppler examination is required to evaluate the anatomy of the DMA before considering the use of DMA flaps.

Anatomic Variation of the Lateral Sinus in Patients With Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: Delineation With Black-Blood Contrast-Enhanced MRI

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe the peculiar anatomic variations in the lateral sinus and analyze the patterns of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage by using high-resolution (HR) black-blood (BB) contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).Methods: Total 33 IIH patients who were found cerebral venous sinus stenosis (CVSS) by MR venography (MRV) were enrolled in this study. HR-BB contrast-enhanced MRI was used to assess the features of anatomical variations in transverse sinus and sigmoid sinus. The development of bilateral sinuses was firstly evaluated, including unilateral hypoplasia with contralateral dominance or bilateral balanced development. Then, four kinds of anatomical variations were eventually recorded, including circumscribed stenosis, arachnoid granulation (AG), fibrous septum (FS), and brain herniation (BH) into dural venous sinus (DVS).Results: Bilateral venous drainage dysfunction was found in 30(90.9%) patients, whereas only 3(9.1%) patients presented unilateral venous drainage dysfunction. There was no difference in clinical symptoms between the two groups. The most common case is hypoplasia in unilateral sinus combined with anatomic variation in the contralateral dominant transverse sinus such as AG and BH into DVS. Total of 52 anatomic variations were finally found in bilateral sinuses in 33 enrolled patients, including 19(36.5%)AGs, 12(23.1%)FS, 7(13.5%) BH into DVS and 14(26.9%) circumscribed stenoses. Moreover, 41(62.1%) lateral sinuses showed enhancement in T1-weight-enhanced MRI.Conclusions: Patients with CVSS almost had CSF outflow disorders, whatever bilateral equalization or unilateral hypoplasia with contralateral dominance. Four types of main anatomic variations, including circumscribed stenosis, AG, FS, and BH into DVS, caused venous reflux obstruction by elevating the intracranial press (ICP).

A CBCT Study for Anatomic Variations of Osteomeatal complex in Patients With Cleft Lip and Palate

Objective To evaluate the anatomy and variations of osteomeatal complex (OMC) by comparing patients with nonsyndromic cleft lip and palate (CLP) and control group. Design This case-control study was retrospectively analyzed using cone-beam computed tomography data. Setting Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry Department of Dentomaxillofacial Radiology. Patients The study was conducted with 100 patients (44 females, 56 males) with CLP and 100 patients in the control group, which matched gender and age (with a maximum difference of 3 years). Variables OMC variations are grouped as follows: ethmoidal, conchal, uncinate process, and septal variations. Then, we evaluated the presence of these OMC variations and compared them between the two groups. Statistical analysis The McNemar's test was used to determine any significant differences between the groups for all indices at the 95% confidence level. Results The most common anatomic variation in this study was Agger nasi cell (97%) and concha bullosa (97%) in the patients with CLP, while Agger nasi cell was the most common variation (99%) in the controls. Moreover, the atelectatic uncinate process was the least observed variation in both groups (1%). The incidences of paradoxical concha (58%;42%), bifid concha (29%;11%), deviated nasal septum (92%;80%) were significantly higher in the CLP group ( p < 0.05). Conclusions The statistically significant results found when comparing OMC anatomy between the two groups reveal the importance of three-dimensional evaluation before functional endoscopic sinus surgery in patients with CLP.

DISTRIBUTION OF ANATOMIC VARIATIONS OF THE NOSE AND PARANASAL SINUSES IN KASHMIRI POPULATION BY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SCAN ANALYSIS.

Background: Knowledge of anatomy constitutes an integral part of the total management of patients with sinonasal diseases. The aim of this study was to obtain the prevalence of sinonasal anatomic variations in the Kashmiri population and to understand their importance and impact on the disease process, as well as their influence on surgical management and outcome. Materials and Methods: This study is a prospective review of retrospectively performed normal computed tomography (CT) scans of the nose and paranasal sinuses in the adult Kashmiri population at SMHS Hospital. The scans were reviewed by two independent observers. Results: The most common anatomic variation after excluding agger nasi cells were pneumatized Crista Galli, which was seen in 69% of the scans. However, the least common variation seen in this series was Pneumatized inferior turbinate, which was encountered in 1.1 % of the cases. Conclusion: A wide range of regional differences in the prevalence of each anatomic variation exists. Understanding the preoperative CT scan is substantially important because it is the roadmap for the sinus surgeon. Detection of anatomic variations is vital for surgical planning and the prevention of complications.

Development of a fully automatic deep learning system for L3 selection and body composition assessment on computed tomography

As sarcopenia research has been gaining emphasis, the need for quantification of abdominal muscle on computed tomography (CT) is increasing. Thus, a fully automated system to select L3 slice and segment muscle in an end-to-end manner is demanded. We aimed to develop a deep learning model (DLM) to select the L3 slice with consideration of anatomic variations and to segment cross-sectional areas (CSAs) of abdominal muscle and fat. Our DLM, named L3SEG-net, was composed of a YOLOv3-based algorithm for selecting the L3 slice and a fully convolutional network (FCN)-based algorithm for segmentation. The YOLOv3-based algorithm was developed via supervised learning using a training dataset (n = 922), and the FCN-based algorithm was transferred from prior work. Our L3SEG-net was validated with internal (n = 496) and external validation (n = 586) datasets. Ground truth L3 level CT slice and anatomic variation were identified by a board-certified radiologist. L3 slice selection accuracy was evaluated by the distance difference between ground truths and DLM-derived results. Technical success for L3 slice selection was defined when the distance difference was < 10 mm. Overall segmentation accuracy was evaluated by CSA error and DSC value. The influence of anatomic variations on DLM performance was evaluated. In the internal and external validation datasets, the accuracy of automatic L3 slice selection was high, with mean distance differences of 3.7 ± 8.4 mm and 4.1 ± 8.3 mm, respectively, and with technical success rates of 93.1% and 92.3%, respectively. However, in the subgroup analysis of anatomic variations, the L3 slice selection accuracy decreased, with distance differences of 12.4 ± 15.4 mm and 12.1 ± 14.6 mm, respectively, and with technical success rates of 67.2% and 67.9%, respectively. The overall segmentation accuracy of abdominal muscle areas was excellent regardless of anatomic variation, with CSA errors of 1.38–3.10 cm2. A fully automatic system was developed for the selection of an exact axial CT slice at the L3 vertebral level and the segmentation of abdominal muscle areas.