Mediastinal pulmonary artery is associated with greater artery diameter and lingular division volume

Pulmonary vessels have numerous variation and aberrant branching patterns. Mediastinal lingular artery (MLA), the most common aberrant branch, might contribute to greater blood flow to lingular division. Hence, we investigated a correlation between lingular division volume and MLA using three-dimensional CT volumetry. We included 199 consecutive patients who underwent surveillance chest CT to detect possible malignancies in April 2015. We measured lingular division volume and cross-sectional area of lingular arteries using three-dimensional CT volumetry. MLA was identified in 58 cases (29.1%). The MLA group had significantly greater lingular division volume (median ± quartile deviation: 378.3 ± 75.5 mL vs. 330.0 ± 87.5 mL; p = 0.021) and percentage lingular division to left lung volume (19.0 ± 2.62% vs. 16.6 ± 2.39%; p < 0.001) than the non-MLA group. Total cross-sectional area of lingular arteries of the MLA group was significantly larger than that of the non-MLA group (46.1 ± 9.46 vs. 40.2 ± 5.76 mm(2); p = 0.003). The total cross-sectional area of the lingular arteries strongly correlated to the percentage of lingular division to left lung volume (r = 0.689, p < 0.001). This is the first report demonstrating a positive correlation between branching pattern of pulmonary artery and lung volume.