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Circumflex branch of coronary artery: anatomy, location and function

The circumflex artery is a main branch of the left coronary artery that runs around the left side of the heart. It supplies the left atrium and the lateral and posterior walls of the left ventricle.

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Highlighted in the model: Circumflex branch of coronary artery. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Circumflex branch of coronary artery at a glance

What it is
The circumflex artery is a main branch of the left coronary artery that runs around the left side of the heart.
Location
It arises from the left coronary artery behind the pulmonary trunk and runs in the left atrioventricular groove toward the back of the heart. It gives off the left (obtuse) marginal branches.
Function
It supplies the left atrium and the lateral and posterior walls of the left ventricle.
Body system
Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA3895 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It gives the SA nodal artery in about 40% of people. In left-dominant hearts (about 8–10%) it also gives the posterior interventricular artery and the AV nodal artery.
  • It runs with the great cardiac vein in the left part of the coronary groove.

Clinical relevance

Blockage can cause infarction of the lateral wall of the left ventricle.

Structures next to the circumflex branch of coronary artery

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Circumflex branch of coronary artery (FMA3895). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
  3. 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.