Research Article
Anatomical Variations of Pulmonary Venous Drainage among Indian Population
Shah A*, Joshi A and Yash Achhapalia
Department of Radio-diagnosis, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital, Sion, Mumbai, India
*Corresponding author: Shah A, Department of Radio-diagnosis, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General
Hospital, Sion, Mumbai, India; mobile: +91 9969120898; E-mail: ankitasrad@gmail.com
Copyright: © 2022 Shah A, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Information: Submission: 15/08/2022; Accepted: 09/09/2022; Published: 16/09/2022
Abstract
Background: The drainage sites of the pulmonary veins are an important source of ectopic atrial electrical activity, especially in patients with atrial
fibrillation. Variations in the pulmonary venous anatomy are frequent. Differences in pulmonary vein anatomy and the presence of variant or anomalous
anatomy can be of critical importance, especially for preoperative planning of pulmonary and cardiac surgery.
Objective: To assess the patterns of pulmonary venous drainage into the left atrium and to determine the frequency of each variant of pulmonary venous
anatomy
Materials and methods: 300 studies of thoracic multidetector computed tomography were retrospectively reviewed for the anatomical features of the
pulmonary vein and its drainage pattern into the left atrium. The percentage of each pattern was calculated.
Results: The anatomy of pulmonary venous drainage in 300 patients (163 male and 133 female, mean age 45 years) showed some variation. In the
right pulmonary vein, the most common drainage pattern was two ostia (77.33%), followed by three to four ostia (19%) and a single ostium (3.67%). On the
left side, there were three patterns; a single venous ostium (63.33%) was much more common than two ostia (35.67%). Three ostia were seen in 3 cases
(1%). In both right and left pulmonary veins, there were six cases that had a single pulmonary venous ostium, bilaterally.
Conclusion: Variations in PV anatomy are not uncommon. Although frequently asymptomatic, knowledge of these variations is important in while
planning cardiothoracic surgeries and PV isolation..