ABSTRACT
Figure 2.5 Barium swallow, right lateral view: 1, trachea; 2, cardiac impression (left atrium); 3, diaphragm; 4, gastro-oesophageal junction
Right ventricle
Left ventricle
Posterior interventricular vessels
Anterior interventricular vessels
which may anastomose with the anterior interventricular branch of the left coronary artery. The left coronary artery (Figs 2.8, 2.9 and 2.11) is larger and arises from the left posterior aortic sinus. It passes forwards to supply atrial and ventricular branches. Its most important branch is the anterior interventricular artery (known clinically as the left anterior descending artery – LAD), which descends in the anterior
The mitral valve is the most frequently diseased heart valve; fibrosis causes the cusps to shorten and causes incompetence and/or stenosis of the valve. Congenital stenosis of the pulmonary and the aortic valves may occur and result in hypertrophy of the right and left ventricles, respectively, and eventual cardiac decompensation. Although anastomoses exist between the two coronary arteries, sudden occlusion of a major branch may result in ischaemia and death of some heart muscle (myocardial infarction), and if
interventricular groove to the apex and the lower border to anastomose with the posterior interventricular branch of the right coronary artery. The circumflex branch passes posteriorly to supply much of the left ventricle. Usually the right ventricle is supplied by the right coronary artery, the left by the left, the interventricular septum by both, and the atria in a variable manner. The sinoatrial node and atrioventricular node are usually supplied by the right coronary artery (Figs 2.10 and 2.12).
