The atrioventricular branches of the human coronary arteries

✍ Scribed by Liberato J. A. Didio

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1967
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 611 KB
• Volume: 123
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0362-2525
• DOI: 10.1002/jmor.1051230406

✦ Synopsis

Branches of the coronary arteries of normal human hearts, supplying both atria and ventricles, were found by fine dissection and have been named rami atrioventriculares. They comprise atrial branches from ventricular arteries and ventricular branches from atrial arteries. Their incidence was 74% in the 50 adult individuals studied. The subjects had committed suicide with a poison which did not damage the coronary arteries. The atrioventricular branches constitute communications across the coronary sulcus, thus establishing a continuity between the atrial and the ventricular arterial supply. Theref ore, there is not invariably a sharp demarcation of blood supply between atria and ventricles, as has been commonly taught. Neither atrial nor ventricular branches consist exclusively of ascending and descending branches of the coronary arteries, as has been assumed. Atrioventricular branches can play a role in collateral circulation and may, in individuals who are born with them, provide an explanation for some of the variability in signs and symptoms incidental to heart attacks.