Hypoplastic aberrant left subclavian artery in a dog with a persistent right aortic arch

Invited Review—computed Tomographic Angiography (Cta) of the Thoracic Cardiovascular System in Companion Animals

“…Even though the normal cardiac anatomy as provided from MDCT exams in companion animals has not been described (Figs. and ), several reports focus on the diagnosis of congenital or acquired cardiovascular alterations or mass lesions involving the heart using this modality, such as an aberrant left subclavian artery, peripheral pulmonary artery stenosis, a complicated persistent patent ductus arteriosus or tumors or granulomas involving the heart of dogs …”

“…Evaluation of the aorta or its branches has not been specifically targeted using MDCTA in dogs but several case reports of vascular ring anomalies exist …”

“…3 and 4), several reports focus on the diagnosis of congenital or acquired cardiovascular alterations or mass lesions involving the heart using this modality, such as an aberrant left subclavian artery, peripheral pulmonary artery stenosis, a complicated persistent patent ductus ar-teriosus or tumors or granulomas involving the heart of dogs. 14,15,19,[75][76][77] At this time, few recent studies are evaluating the use of MDCT for functional or anatomical evaluation of the heart specifically for the application in dogs in an experimental setting. [22][23][24]43 As the companion animal patients will mostly need to undergo anesthesia or heavy sedation for these exams, functional alterations depending on the drug regiment used will have to be taken into consideration.…”

“…U ntil recently, CT applications for the thorax were mostly limited to morphologic evaluation of the chest wall, mediastinum, vessels, and lung parenchyma for differentiating normal from pathological conditions in companion animals . With the increased availability of multidetector‐row CT (MDCT) scanners with up to 320 detector rows that allow image acquisition with high temporal and spatial resolution, the utilization of this modality will likely rise for evaluating the thoracic cardiovascular system in companion animals and has been used in initial case reports and studies …”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] With the increased availability of multidetector-row CT (MDCT) scanners with up to 320 detector rows that allow image acquisition with high temporal and spatial resolution, the utilization of this modality will likely rise for evaluating the thoracic cardiovascular system in companion animals and has been used in initial case reports and studies. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Thoracic cardiovascular structures of clinical interest in companion animals that may potentially benefit from the evaluation using MDCT are the heart including the coronary arteries, aorta, cranial and caudal vena cava, and pulmonary arteries. Many of these structures are considerably smaller in the companion animal patient compared to the adult human patient and spatial resolution has to be optimized similar to pediatric conditions.…”