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Cardiac Anatomy

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Patient Education
1. Guidant Heart and Blood Vessel Basics
  1. http://www.guidant.com/condition/heart
2. FDA Heart Health Online
  1. http://www.fda.gov/hearthealth/
Heart vessel anatomy
1. Coronary artery layers
  1. Intima (inner-most layer, lined by endothelium)
    1. Release Heparin, prostacyclin to prevent clots
  2. Media (smooth muscle layer)
    1. External elastic lamina seperates from adventitia
  3. Adventitia (outer-most layer)
    1. Composed of fibroblasts, collagen, proteoglycans
2. Coronary artery course
  1. Right coronary artery (RCA)
  2. Left coronary artery (LCA)
    1. Left anterior descending artery (LAD)
      1. Divides into diagonal branches
    2. Left circumflex artery (LCX)
      1. Divides into obtuse marginal branches

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This page was written by Scott Moses, MD, and was last revised 1/26/2008. Please send comments and questions to the editor. Contact information may be found on the page About the Family Practice Notebook. These pages are best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0.