Positional Relationship Between the Pulmonary Venous Confluence-Vertical Vein and Atria in Infracardiac Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection

To explore the positional relationship between the pulmonary venous confluence-venous vein (PVC-VV) and both the atria in infracardiac total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (iTAPVC), using two-dimensional (2D) computerized tomography (CT) reconstruction. Through the 2D reconstruction of enhanced cardiac CT images of patients with iTAPVC, the projection of PVC-VV on coronal axial images was acquired and its location on the bilateral atrial splice was analyzed. Sagittal axial reconstruction was used to identify which atrium had a precise anterior–posterior positional relationship with PVC-VV. The type of iTAPVC, where the projection of PVC-VV was lying on the left atrium, and the left atrium had a precise anterior–posterior positional relationship with PVC-VV, was classified as the left atrial type. If the projection of PVC-VV was lying on the right atrium and the right atrium had a precise anterior–posterior positional relationship with PVC-VV, it was classified as the right atrial type. Finally, if the projection of PVC-VV was lying in the middle of the bilateral atria, and both the atria had precise anterior–posterior positional relationship with PVC-VV, it was referred to as the bilateral atrial type. Upon analysis of the 22 enhanced cardiac CT images, 6 were the left atrial type (27.27 %), 9 were right atrial type (40.91 %), while 7 were of the bilateral atrial type (31.82 %). The positional relationship between PVC-VV and the bilateral atria are variable, and iTAPVC classification using 2D CT reconstruction is an invaluable tool in designing the surgical approaches in iTAPVC.