Abstract:

Objective　To study the clinical significance of the preoperative evaluation of the gallbladder by observing normal anatomy and origin variance of the gallbladder artery via 256 slice spiral CT angiography.　Methods　A retrospective analysis of imaging data of 215 cases of patients with upper abdominal enhanced CT scan or CTA angiography in our hospital was performed. Through observation of the origin of the gallbladder artery, its transverse diameter and origin distance could be measured.　Results　219 branches of gallbladder arteries in 215 cases were totally counted, including 128 in men and 91 in women, which mainly resulted from single-branch type in most cases and double-branch type in only 4 cases. And 183 branches normally originated from the right hepatic artery, accounting for 83.6%, while 36 branches had the origin variation, accounting for 16.4%. There was no significant difference in the normal origin and the origin variance of the gallbladder artery in different genders (P＞0.05). Of the 183 branches with normal origin of the gallbladder artery in the right hepatic artery,106 were in male while 77 were in female; and in terms of the origin distance, the average data was (33.15±11.75) mm and (27.54±12.94) mm in male and female, respectively. It showed a significant difference in the normal origin distance of the gallbladder artery in different genders (P<0.05). In the transverse diameter of the gallbladder artery, the relevant data were (1.95±0.34)mm in male and (1.92±0.34) mm in female, respectively. There was no significant difference in the transverse diameter of the normal gallbladder artery origin in different genders (P>0.05).　Conclusion　The 256 slice spiral CT could clearly observe the normal anatomy and its origin variance of the gallbladder artery so as to provide reference data for the gallbladder preoperative evaluation.

Key words:  Multi-slice spiral CT, Cystic artery, Variation