J Korean Soc Med Inform.  2002 Mar;8(1):55-62.

A Study on the Angle Between the Abdominal Aorta and the Superior Mesenteric Artery by 3D Image Reconstruction

• Jang YI
• Kim WJ
• Heo YN

Abstract

SMAS(Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome) is a disease caused by a chronic obstruction of the duodenum(transverse portion), which is hardly detectable. However, it is known that when the superior mesenteric artery and abdominal aorta form a narrow angle, that the transverse portion of the duodenum is pressed down between the superior mesenteric artery and the abdominal aorta, and that this can lead to obstruction of the duodenum. Measuring this angle is a complicated job using conventional angiography, and results often turns out to be inaccurate. In addition, no attempt has been made to determine the value of this angle in Koreans. In this study, we conducted abdominal CT angiography using MIP(maximum intensity projection) on patients with no clinical evidence of SMAS in order to determine the angle at which the superior mesenteric artery branches from the abdominal aorta by using PC based software(Rapidia ver. 1.2) for the image reconstruction. Accordingly, we found that the mean angle between the abdominal aorta and the superior mesenteric artery was 50.05+/-15.87 degrees on average, and that the angle in men(53.64+/-16.57 degrees) is higher than in women(46.46+/-14.98 degrees). We hope that the angles determined by our study will serve as an important indicator for detecting SMAS.

Keyword

Maximum Intensity Projection; Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome; 3D Volume Rendering; Rapidia S/W; Computed Tomography Angiography

MeSH Terms

Angiography
Aorta, Abdominal*
Duodenum
Hope
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted*
Mesenteric Arteries
Mesenteric Artery, Superior*
Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome
Tomography, X-Ray Computed