Please pay attention to the diagnosis and treatment of anomalous body arteries supplying the normal lower basal segment of the lung!

  The diagnosis and treatment of a disease requires careful consideration. Through my diagnosis and treatment of more than 40 cases (only 50 cases reported worldwide) of this disease, I found that the misdiagnosis rate is extremely high in China. Please pay attention to the patients and medical workers!  This article is published in the hope that it will help patients, diagnostic medical imaging and medical staff in thoracic surgery.  The complete meaning of anomalous body artery supplying normal lower basal lung segment is an anomalous artery originating from the descending aorta supplying the lower basal lung segment, while the bronchial tree and lung parenchyma of the basal segment are normal, while the basal segment pulmonary artery is absent or stenosed [mostly absent (complete type), partially stenosed (incomplete type)]; more than 95% of the left lower lung is involved, so it is also called anomalous body artery supplying normal left lower basal lung segment, and additionally called no isolated pulmonary artery corporal circulation, left lower pulmonary artery sexual pulmonary isolation, vagal artery supplying the left lower lobe of the lung and intralobular type isolation Pryce’s type 1.  With the development of CT examination techniques, congenital pulmonary vascular malformations have been clearly diagnosed, especially with the widespread use of multilayer spiral CT (MDCT), and this disease can be diagnosed by MDCT angiography (MDCTA). Although this disease is a rare congenital bronchio-pulmonary vascular malformation, through my research in the last decade, I found that this disease is more common in Mongolian race, i.e., yellow race. Articles published abroad are basically from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and the People’s Republic of China.  The cause of this disease is not yet clear, but it may be due to the degeneration of the small primitive branches of the dorsal aorta supplying the pulmonary buds during embryonic development, which form abnormal connections with the lung parenchyma and affect the connection between the pulmonary artery and the pulmonary vascular bed, resulting in poor development of the pulmonary arteries in this area, while the development of the bronchi and lung tissue is not affected. The pathophysiology of the disease is based on left-to-left shunting, congestion of the lung tissue supplied by the corporal arteries, and high pressure in the corporal circulation, which increases the pressure in the pulmonary vascular bed and the left heart load, and also increases the volume and pressure in the pulmonary circulation and increases the right heart load, leading to various clinical syndromes. Some patients may have hemoptysis, respiratory infections, dyspnea, congestive heart failure (pulmonary hypertension), atheromatous dilatation (chest pain, vascular rupture), and electrocardiographic changes of high left ventricular voltage or ventricular hypertrophy.  Current treatment for this disease is primarily open-heart surgery, including pneumonectomy, vascular ligation, and vascular anastomosis. Open thoracic surgery is highly invasive and can leave a variety of postoperative changes and can affect the development of various organs in the chest to varying degrees. The lower dorsal lobe and part of the basal segment are not involved, and lobectomy and basal segment resection removes part of the normal functioning lung tissue. Vascular anastomosis is suitable for neonates in adults because the wall elasticity of the anomalous artery is destroyed due to long-term hypertension and normal circulation cannot be restored after connection with the pulmonary artery; it is also more complicated and invasive, and postoperative complications including anastomotic stenosis may occur. Although televised thoracoscopic techniques can be used for the surgical treatment of this disease, they can still cause a lot of pain to the patient.  Endovascular embolization treatment of anomalous body arteries supplying the lung has been reported in many cases. The most reported treatment is for pulmonary isolation in neonates and children, and the principles of endovascular embolization treatment for pulmonary isolation and this disease are not quite the same. In the former case, terminal embolization of the anomalous body artery is used to cause ischemia, degeneration and atrophy of the isolated lung tissue, resulting in visceral resection and elimination of pulmonary infection and hemoptysis. The latter is embolization of the anomalous body artery to reduce the pressure and cardiac load in the normal pulmonary vascular bed and correct the left-left shunt to treat and prevent symptoms such as hemoptysis and heart failure, with the main aim of altering local hemodynamics and minimizing the impact on the target organ, hence the use of trunk embolization.  Interventional embolization applied to the treatment of this disease has been successfully performed in 15 cases in our department, the largest sample in the world in a single center. Interventional intravascular embolization is minimally invasive, effective, and safe, and is highly recommended; patients diagnosed with “pulmonary isolation” are encouraged to seek further care in our clinic to avoid misdiagnosis and unnecessary surgical procedures.