Pulmonary trunk
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At the time the article was created Craig Hacking had no recorded disclosures.
View Craig Hacking's current disclosuresAt the time the article was last revised Craig Hacking had the following disclosures:
- Philips Australia, Paid speaker at Philips Spectral CT events (ongoing)
These were assessed during peer review and were determined to not be relevant to the changes that were made.
View Craig Hacking's current disclosures- Pulmonary artery
- Pulmonary arteries
- Main pulmonary artery
- Main pulmonary artery (mPA)
- Main pulmonary arteries
- Truncus pulmonalis
- Pulmonary trunks
The pulmonary trunk, also known as main pulmonary artery (mPA), (TA: truncus pulmonalis) is the solitary arterial output from the right ventricle, transporting deoxygenated blood to the lungs for oxygenation.
Gross anatomy
The pulmonary trunk is approximately 50 mm long and 30 mm wide (most authors use 29 mm in males and 27 mm in females (axial width) as the cut-offs of normal 1,5). It arises as a direct superior continuation of the right ventricular outflow tract, separated by the pulmonary valve. As it ascends it slants posteriorly and to the left of the ascending aorta. Together with the ascending aorta, the pulmonary trunk is invested in a common sheath of serous visceral pericardium, anterior to the transverse pericardial sinus.
At the level of the transthoracic plane, the trunk emerges from the fibrous pericardium to divide into the two main pulmonary arteries: the longer right pulmonary artery and the shorter left pulmonary artery. The division occurs in the concavity of the aortic arch, anterior to the left main bronchus and the left of the carina.
The left coronary artery passes between the pulmonary trunk (on the left) and the auricle of the left atrium.
The pulmonary trunk gives off various branches. One of them is the right interlobar artery. The interlobar artery is seen lateral to the bronchus intermedius 7. The right interlobar artery typically measures 16 mm in males and 15 mm in females on a PA chest radiograph 6.
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Related pathology
Quiz questions
References
- 1. Last, R. J., McMinn, R. M. H.. Last's Anatomy, Regional and Applied. (1994) ISBN: 044304662X - Google Books
- 2. Paul Butler, Adam Mitchell, Jeremiah C. Healy. Applied Radiological Anatomy. (2012) ISBN: 9780521766661 - Google Books
- 3. Keith L. Moore, Arthur F. Dalley, A. M. R. Agur. Clinically Oriented Anatomy. (2013) ISBN: 9781451119459 - Google Books
- 4. Nguyen E, Silva C, Seely J, Chong S, Lee K, Müller N. Pulmonary Artery Aneurysms and Pseudoaneurysms in Adults: Findings at CT and Radiography. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2007;188(2):W126-34. doi:10.2214/AJR.05.1652 - Pubmed
- 5. Truong Q, Massaro J, Rogers I et al. Reference Values for Normal Pulmonary Artery Dimensions by Noncontrast Cardiac Computed Tomography: The Framingham Heart Study. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2012;5(1):147-54. doi:10.1161/CIRCIMAGING.111.968610 - Pubmed
- 6. Bogati S, Maharjan S, Chand RB. Measurement of right pulmonary artery diameter on normal chest radiographs. Journal of Chitwan Medical College. 2018;8(24):44-48. ISSN 2091-2889
- 7. Stephanie Ryan, Michelle McNicholas, Stephen J. Eustace. Anatomy for Diagnostic Imaging. (2011) Page 129. ISBN: 9780702029714 - Google Books
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heart
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