Appearance And Visibility Of The Thoracic Duct On Computed Tomography Of The Chest

The thoracic duct is the largest lymphatic vessel of the body. With modern imaging technology metastatic involvement of the thoracic duct has been reported. So, it is important for the radiologist to be familiar with its normal appearance and anatomy. For this purpose 100 selected thoracic CT- scans were reviewed to describe the thoracic duct in the posterior mediastinum. The thoracic duct could be identified in 63% of the patients and visibility was best at the caudal parts of the posterior mediastinum. In most cases the thoracic duct measured around 2mm (range 1-4mm). This is in accordance to older studies. In conclusion the normal thoracic duct can be seen in a large portion of patients undergoing CT scans of the chest. If an enlarged thoracic duct without nodal involvement may indicate lymphatic spread needs to be adressed in further studies.