Anatomy question: "right anterior left superior" pulmonary artery & mainstem bronchi relationship

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MyCherie

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Hi,

I'm just curious if anyone, particularly those who have seen an attached lung within the thorax, can tell me whether this pearl holds true along the entire length of the mainstem bronchus, or if it only applies to the point at which the two structures enter the lung. My curiosity was piqued by a figure in UWORLD which didn't show the left pulmonary artery positioned superior to the bronchus, so I was wondering if this qualified as a correctable thing.

I imagine if the answer is "no, they aren't in this orientation for the entire length of the bronchus," then they kind of do a windy-dance like the pulmonary trunk and the aorta.

Thanks for any input!

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The mainstem bronchi are relatively short structures, a couple of cm, so that relationship is approximately true along their entire length. It's approximate because they're not parallel in all planes. Show us the figure
 
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Hi,

I'm just curious if anyone, particularly those who have seen an attached lung within the thorax, can tell me whether this pearl holds true along the entire length of the mainstem bronchus, or if it only applies to the point at which the two structures enter the lung. My curiosity was piqued by a figure in UWORLD which didn't show the left pulmonary artery positioned superior to the bronchus, so I was wondering if this qualified as a correctable thing.

I imagine if the answer is "no, they aren't in this orientation for the entire length of the bronchus," then they kind of do a windy-dance like the pulmonary trunk and the aorta.

Thanks for any input!

Get a DICOM viewer (eg OsiriX for Mac) and download a CTA dataset (eg MECANIX - OsiriX | DICOM Image Library).

Play around, probably best to look at sagittal plane to answer your questions, but varies a bit by patient.

E-Anatomy is great too, but not free.

Visible human project is a decent resource too, but not sure how nice the viewer is.
 
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My curiosity was piqued by a figure in UWORLD which didn't show the left pulmonary artery positioned superior to the bronchus, so I was wondering if this qualified as a correctable thing.

Thanks for any input!

The left main stem bronchus is usually said to be hyparterial, that is, it is positioned below the left pulmonary artery. The opposite is true for the right main stem bronchus, or specifically the right superior lobar bronchus (eparterial).
 
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