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Erschienen in:
01.12.2015 | Original Article
The phrenic nerve with accompanying vessels: a silent cause of cardiovascular border obliteration on chest radiography
Erschienen in: Japanese Journal of Radiology | Ausgabe 12/2015
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Purpose
Our aim was to clarify the frequency of cardiovascular border obliteration on frontal chest radiography and to prove that the phrenic nerve with accompanying vessels can be considered as a cause of obliteration of cardiovascular border on an otherwise normal chest radiography.
Materials and methods
Two radiologists reviewed chest radiographs and computed tomography (CT) images of 100 individuals. CT confirmed the absence of intrapulmonary or extrapulmonary abnormalities in all of them. We examined the frequency of cardiovascular border obliteration on frontal chest radiography and summarized the causes of obliteration as pericardial fat pad, phrenic nerve, intrafissure fat, pulmonary vessels, and others, comparing them with CT in each case.
Results
Cardiovascular border was obliterated on frontal chest radiography in 46 cases on the right and in 61 on the left. The phrenic nerve with accompanying vessels was found to be a cause of obliteration in 34 of 46 cases (74 %) on the right and 29 of 61 (48 %) cases on the left. The phrenic nerve was the most frequent cause of cardiovascular border obliteration on both sides.
Conclusion
The phrenic nerve with accompanying vessels, forming a prominent fold of parietal pleura, can be attributed as a cause of cardiovascular border obliteration on frontal chest radiography.