To present anatomical variants of the origin of bronchial arteries on CT images. To touch on the importance of nonbronchial systemic arteries. Finally, to present the clinical application of the aforementioned anatomical knowledge and their impact on interpretation of CT scans.

The blood supply of lungs comes from two different vascular systems: pulmonary arteries and systemic arteries. The systemic supply of the lungs is evanescent and variable. It is composed mainly of bronchial arteries, but in some circumstances other arteries may transfer systemic blood into the lungs. Although the systemic supply is responsible only for 1% of the blood flow, the advance in interventional treatment of haemoptysis showed that it is the most frequent culprit. Furthermore, good preoperative knowledge about the anatomy of bronchial arteries in...

Bronchial arteries usually (ca 70% of general population) originate from descending aorta at the level of the 5th and 6th thoracic vertebral body. They are then referred to as orthotopic. The orthotopic bronchial artery supply has been divided into four types: The most frequent is type I (ca 40% of orthotopic arteries) when two left bronchial arteries derive directly from descending aorta (Fig. 1) and a single right bronchial artery begins as an intercostobronchial trunk ( Fig. 2 ). In type II (ca 20% of...

The current advance in treatment of haemoptysis and oesophageal cancer requires taking into consideration the anatomy of systemic blood supply of the lungs.

Piotr Malkowski is a resident in radiology at the Department of Diagnostic Imaging in Miedzyleski Szpital Specjalistyczny in Warsaw, Poland.

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