Morphometric Analysis of Great Cardiac Vein and its Clinical Implication-A Cadaveric Study

Introduction: Great Cardiac Vein (GCV) is the longest venous vessel of heart. It is the main tributary of the coronary sinus and anterior wall of the left ventricle and interventricular septum are drained by GCV.

Aim: To study the morphometry of GCV and its variations in north-western region of India.

Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Anatomy, SRMS IMS, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India, from January 2012 to December 2013. Thirty hearts of different ages and of both sexes (22 males and 8 females) procured from cadavers in the department were studied. The length and diameter of GCV were measured with help of thread and digital vernier callipers. The mean, standard deviation and correlation were calculated using Microsoft office excel 2007.

Results: In present study, 30 hearts (mean age: 41.83±12.37 years) of both sexes (22 males and 8 females) were studied. The mean length of GCV was 79.26±22.78 mm and the range of length was from 55.50±27.57 to 112.33±36.07 mm. The mean diameter of GCV was 2.85±1.32 mm. The mean length of GCV in males was 83.26±22.05 mm, while in females, the mean length of GCV was 74.72±22.08 mm. The diameter of GCV was having significant relation with weight (r=-0.663, p-value=0.0007) and age group (r=0.481; p-value=0.023) in cadaveric males.

Conclusion: The present morphometric study of GCV provides data for measurement of interventional devices required during interventional procedure in Indian setting.