CT Great Vessels - Video Lesson

Hey everybody, welcome back. This lesson is about the anatomy of the great vessels as seen in CT imaging. We'll start with an axial view. This is an axial view of the chest. The scan protocol is a CT angiography for pulmonary embolism. In other words, the timing of the scan phase was designed to image maximum opacification of the pulmonary arteries looking for pulmonary embolisms within those arteries. In this lesson, we will focus on the great vessels that is, the large vascular structures associated with the heart. We're beginning at about the level of the carina. First, notice the superior vena cava. This is the brightest area of the entire heart. That's because a bolus of iodinated contrast is being actively injected into the patient. When contrast is injected through the upper extremities, it arrives at the heart by way of the superior vena cava. We can see the ascending aorta extending from the top of the heart. It should appear just like this large