Anterior intercostal veins at a glance
- What it is
- Small veins that drain the front of the intercostal spaces.
- Location
- Run in the anterior intercostal spaces alongside the anterior intercostal arteries.
- Function
- Drain blood from the anterior chest wall into the internal thoracic (and musculophrenic) veins.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA70839 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- This item is a blood vessel group rather than a muscle.
- The upper spaces usually have two anterior intercostal veins each, one along each rib border, joining the posterior intercostal veins around the chest wall.
Structures next to the anterior intercostal veins
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- External intercostal muscle · muscular
- Posterior intercostal arteries · cardiovascular
- Internal intercostal muscle · muscular
- Azygos vein · cardiovascular
- Posterior leaflet of tricuspid valve · cardiovascular
- Coronary sinus · cardiovascular
- Posterior interventricular branch of coronary artery · cardiovascular
- Middle cardiac vein · cardiovascular
- Small cardiac vein · cardiovascular
- Descending thoracic aorta · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Anterior intercostal veins (FMA70839). 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.
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