Fifth costal cartilage at a glance
- Also called
- Costal cartilage 5
- What it is
- The bar of hyaline cartilage that connects the fifth rib to the sternum.
- Location
- Extends forward from the front end of rib 5. Joins the body of the sternum directly.
- Function
- Gives the rib cage elasticity, allowing the chest wall to expand during breathing.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA8112 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Rectus abdominis inserts on the fifth, sixth and seventh costal cartilages and the xiphoid process.
- Costal cartilages calcify with age, which is visible on chest X-rays.
Structures next to the fifth costal cartilage
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Sixth costal cartilage · skeletal
- Transversus thoracis · muscular
- Fourth costal cartilage · skeletal
- Anterior papillary muscle of ventricle · cardiovascular
- Seventh costal cartilage · skeletal
- Xiphoid process · skeletal
- Anterior interventricular vein · cardiovascular
- Septal branch of anterior interventricular artery · cardiovascular
- Anterolateral head of lateral papillary muscle of ventricle · cardiovascular
- Trunk of anterior interventricular branch of coronary artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Fifth costal cartilage (FMA8112). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. 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.