Anterior cardiac vein at a glance
- What it is
- The anterior cardiac veins are small veins that drain the front of the right ventricle directly into the right atrium.
- Location
- They begin on the anterior surface of the right ventricle, cross the coronary (atrioventricular) groove and open straight into the right atrium, not into the coronary sinus. The small marginal vein often joins them.
- Function
- They drain deoxygenated blood from the anterior wall of the right ventricle.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA76767 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Typically there are several of them, and they are among the few cardiac veins that bypass the coronary sinus.
- The smallest cardiac veins (venae cordis minimae) also drain directly into the heart chambers, mostly the right atrium.
Structures next to the anterior cardiac vein
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Conus artery · cardiovascular
- Body of sternum · skeletal
- Internal thoracic vein · cardiovascular
- Third costal cartilage · skeletal
- Anterior leaflet of tricuspid valve · cardiovascular
- Anterior cusp of pulmonary valve · cardiovascular
- Fourth costal cartilage · skeletal
- Small cardiac vein · cardiovascular
- Internal thoracic artery · cardiovascular
- Septal branch of anterior interventricular artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Anterior cardiac vein (FMA76767). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.