Contribution of CT angiography in abnormal pulmonary venous return (APVR): About 7 cases.

Abnormal pulmonary venous return (APVR) refers to malformations involving the connection of the pulmonary veins to the left atrium. In this type of malformation, one or more pulmonary veins do not terminate in the left atrium (LA), but flow directly or indirectly into the right atrium (RA) via a collecting vein, the superior vena cava or the inferior vena cava. In this situation, oxygenated pulmonary venous return flows directly or indirectly into the RA and the severity of the situation depends on the number of pulmonary veins that drain into the RA. CT angiography is essential to confirm the diagnosis and to detect other associated abnormalities (Fig. 1). It is a retrospective study including patients followed in Cardiology and Radiology Departments of Hédi Chaker University Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia, between January 2021 and February 2022 for APVR. The diagnosis was suspected on echocardiography data. A thoracic CT angiography confirmed the diagnosis and specified exactly the type of APVR. A correlation between echographic and CT data was performed. We collected 7 patients with APVR during our 15-month study period. The mean age of our patients was 9 years and 5 months (from 3 days to 25 years). The sex ratio was 2:5, with a female predominance. The study included 2 cases of total APVR (1 intracardiac and 1 infracardiac) and 5 cases of partial APVR (4 supracardiac and 1 intracardiac). Associated cardiac malformations were found in 6 patients: ventricular and atrial septal defect and coarctation of the aorta. Venous return anomalies are rare but potentially fatal pathologies requiring urgent surgical treatment. Thoracic CT angiography is a very efficient method for confirming diagnosis, typing, searching for associated malformations and for guiding the therapeutic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]