Congenital abnormalities of the ribs: Evaluation with multidetector computed tomography

Objectives: to evaluate congenital abnormalities of ribs using multidetector computed tomography. methods: the retrospective study was conducted at mustafa kemal university research hospital,hatay,turkey and comprised data of patients aged 1-45 years who attended the radiology department for computed tomography of the thorax between january 2010 and july 2013. multiplanar reconstructions,maximum intensity projections,and 3-dimensional images were acquired to investigate numerical and structural abnormalities of the ribs of the patients who underwent multidetector computed tomography for a variety of indications. results: the study comprised 650 patients. of them,231(35.5%) were female and 419(64.5%) male. the overall mean age was 20.9± 5.1years. however,data of 90(13.8%) patients was excluded from cervical rib evaluation and of 120(18.5%) from lumbar rib evaluation as these regions were out of the section because of the positioning. finally,560(86.5%) patients were included in the cervical rib evaluations,and 530(81.5%) in the lumbar rib evaluations. all the 650(100%) patients were included in the thoracic rib evaluations. numerical abnormalities were observed in cervical ribs in 19(3.6%),in thoracic ribs in 1(0.15%) and in lumbar ribs in 7(1.3%) cases. the structural abnormalities were bifid rib in 44(6.7%) and fused type in 17(2.6%) cases. conclusion: multidetector computed tomography enabled evaluation of the thoracic cage as a whole. © 2017,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.