Sectional anatomy of the adrenal gland in the coronal plane

Abstract

To provide practical anatomic data for the imaging diagnosis and surgical treatment of adrenal disease, we investigated the anatomy of the adrenal gland and its relationships to regional structures using 31 sets of serial coronal sections of upper abdomen of Chinese adult cadavers and correlated coronal magnetic resonance (MR) images of ten upper abdomens of adult healthy volunteers and coronal reconstructed multislice spiral computed tomography (MSCT) images of five patients without lesions in the adrenal gland. The adrenal glands were visualized mainly on the successive coronal sections between 18 mm anterior to the posterior margin of inferior vena cava and 24 mm posterior to the posterior margin of inferior vena cava. In general, the left adrenal gland was visualized two sections earlier than the right adrenal gland. On the plane through the anterior parts of bilateral renal hili (A₁₈), the appearance rate of bilateral adrenal glands was 100%, and the maximal measurements of bilateral adrenal glands were visualized. The length, width, thickness of right adrenal body, thickness of medial limb and lateral limb were, respectively, 34.02 ± 2.12 mm, 10.91 ± 0.89 mm, 5.82 ± 0.26 mm, 2.78 ± 0.08 mm, 2.62 ± 0.06 mm, whereas the measurements of left adrenal gland were 28.31 ± 2.46 mm, 18.40 ± 1.06 mm, 6.84 ± 0.24 mm, 3.02 ± 0.08 mm, 2.86 ± 0.07 mm, respectively. The coronal plane has superior advantage in showing the bilateral adrenal glands. The shapes of adrenal glands are various, whereas the range of adrenal thickness is quite narrow. The thickness of adrenal medial and lateral limbs, especially the thickness of lateral limb are useful for the diagnosis of the bilateral adrenocortical disease.