Anomalous subaortic position of the brachiocephalic vein (innominate vein): an echocardiographic study.

Abstract

In 24 (0.98%) of 2457 patients with congenital heart disease the brachiocephalic vein was in an anomalous position below the aortic arch. This is a much higher proportion of such cases than reported so far. This high frequency may arise from differences in the study population and the method of diagnosis. This venous anomaly was more common in patients with tetralogy of Fallot or ventricular septal defect with pulmonary atresia. Patients with the venous anomaly were more likely to have a right aortic arch. The anomalous course of the brachiocephalic vein from the neck to the junction of the superior vena cava was shown by cross sectional echocardiography. In doubtful cases, Doppler study usually clarified the anatomical arrangement.

Anomalous left brachiocephalic vein: important vascular anomaly concomitant with congenital anomalies and heart diseases

“…This aortic abnormality has been reported in ALBCV patients as high as 46% [14], 70% [19], 77% [3] and 86% [10]. In a study by Choi et al [4] it was shown that the presence of ALBCV in other congenital heart anomalies such as TOF, VSD or pulmonary atresia is associated with higher incidence of right sided aortic arch.…”

“…High incidence of other cardiac abnormalities in these patients has been reported previously [4,6,10]. In a study published at 2010, Nagashima et al [14] reviewed surgical records of 4805 patients and found 15 patients with ALBCV.…”

“…Anomalous retro-aortic left brachiocephalic vein is an anomaly seen in about 0.5-1.7% of all children with CHD [3,4,6,10,14]. Herein, we reported the prevalence of cardiovascular anomalies in 22 young patients with ALBCV.…”

“…Presence of TOF in the ALBCV patients is a common finding and varies between 40% and 42% [4,14], 77% [3], 87.5% [10] and 93% [6] among studies. Although the frequency of TOF in these patients is extremely high, ALBCV is not a common finding in TOF patients and has been seen in 5% to 8.5% of them [4,6,10]. Right sided aortic arch is another abnormality seen with high frequency in ALBCV patients.…”

“…Bartoli et al [1] reported the pseudocoarctation of the aorta associated with ALBCV which has never been described before. Choi et al [4] reviewed 2457 echocardiograms of CHD and found 24 cases of ALBCV. They discovered 1 patient with atrial inversion and a RBCV below the left aortic arch.…”