A STUDY OF BRANCHING PATTERN OF CORONARY ARTERIES IN HUMAN CADAVERS
Coronary artery disease is the commonest cause of heart diseases and the most important cause of death all over the world. Coronary artery occlusion may either result in myocardial infarction or lead onto ischemia and angina pectoris. The recent advances in direct coronary artery surgery, the newly invented technique s in bypass surgery and the modern methods of revascularisation require a complete knowledge of the coronary circulation. The study of coronary arteries regarding its course and distribution was conducted at the Department of anatomy-RMMC, Annamalai University. 50 heart specimen age group of 20 – 65 years were studied. After cadaveric dissection, 50 heart specimens were collected from dissection hall for a period of 3 years.Manual dissection was done in 50 adult heart specimens, from dissection hall.Detaile d description of material collection.It arises from the anterior aortic sinus, the artery passes at first anteriorly and slightly to the right between the right auri cle and pulmonary trunk where the sinus usually bulges. Reaching the atrioventricular (coronary) sulcus it descends in this almost vertically to the right (acute) cardiac border, curving around it into the posterior part of the sulcus , where it approaches its junction with both interatrial and interventricular grooves, a region appropriately t ermed the crux of the heart.LCA arises from the left posterior aortic sinus .In its course, it lies between the pulmonary trunk and the left auricle emerging to reach th e atrioventricular sulcus, in which if turns to the left. In this situation, it may give rise occasionally to the „artery of the Sinoatrial node‟ (James 1961) the LCA – reaches the atrioventricular (or) coronary sulcus & divides into 3 main branches of which the anterior interventricular (descending) ramus is commonly described as the continuation of LCA.As the study of the various patterns of coronary arteries with variations, is essential for the clinicians, the coronary arterial pattern was studied in 50 heart specimens. According to the description of our Bible, Gray‟s Anatomy (39 th edition), the study was carried out and compared with our present observations