Abstract: Objective   To study the anatomic and drainage patterns of pulmonary veins in the superior lobe of left lung in healthy people with Muti-slice spiral CT (MSCT), which providing reference for anatomical segmental resection of lung.    Methods   Two hundred cases of normal chest CT plain scan data were collected, and the venous anatomy and drainage pattern map were obtained by volume reconstruction (VR), and the occurrence rate of each vein type was observed and counted. Combined with the reconstruction of 5 mm axial MIP map, the corresponding types were identified.   Results   The left superior pulmonary vein can be divided into:(1) V1 + 2 type, (2) V2 + 3 type, (3) V1+2a V2 +3bc  according to the condition of common trunk, and the occurrence rates were 69% (138 /200), 17.5% (35/200) and 13.5% (27/200) respectively. Its characteristics were as follows: when V1 + 2 dries together, the branches then sent out were not related to each other; in V2+3 type, V2 and V3 dries together, and V1 and V2+3 respectively flowed into the left superior pulmonary vein stem; in V1 + 2a V2 + 3bc type, V2 mainly had a large variation; when V4 and V5 of the left upper lobe lingual segment vein dries together, their branches were not related to each other, and V4 had the same situation with V3b, and each had their different drainage characteristics.   Conclusions    The vein classification of the superior lobe of left lung is more complicated due to the presence of lingual segment. Venous anatomy and drainage pattern obtained by MSCT combined with 5 mm axial MIP can clearly show the pulmonary vein anatomical classification, which can be used as a routine method for its anatomical identification.

Key words: Superior lobe of left lung,  ,  , Venous drainage,  ,  , Bronchus, Multi slice spiral CT , Anatomical segmental resection of lung