The "short" right coronary artery. Descriptive and pathological anatomy
Penther, P.; Boschat, J.; Blanc, J.J.
Archives des Maladies du Coeur et des Vaisseaux 73(6): 757-762
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-9683 PMID: 6779770 Document Number: 157824
In a series of 242 adult male post mortem studies where death was due to various types of cardiac disease (except congenital heart disease), 26 cases of the right coronary artery supplying the right ventricle alone were encountered. This type of coronary distribution is found with an equal sex incidence (males, 10.81% and females, 10.69%) and comprises the 1st group (group A); the other 216 cases make-up the control group(group B). The anatomy and pathology of the short right coronary artery are treated. In group A the right coronary ostium was normally situated, except in 1 case. The artery terminated as the right retroventricular artery (21 cases) or as the right marginal artery (5 cases). In some cases the other coronary arteries may have anomalous origin and course but these are not significant. The average length of the main stem of the left coronary artery is reduced (9.78 .+-. 3.5 mm); this finding is hardly significant (P < 0.05) as is the absence of the main stem of the left coronary artery in 3 of 26 cases. Group A comprised 12 cases of coronary artery and 15 of other cardiac disease; in the latter subgroup the anterior and left coronary arteries were normal, as were the short right coronary arteries. In the 12 patients with coronary artery disease (4 anterior infarctions, 1 isolated right ventricular infarction, 7 ischemic heart disease) significant stenosis (50% narrowing) involved all 3 vessels in 11 cases and only respected the short right coronary artery in 1 case. The usually diffuse character of stenosing coronary atherosclerosis is demonstrated; an exclusive right ventricular distribution of the right coronary artery does not, in practice, represent any protective factor.