Fourth costal cartilage at a glance
- Also called
- Costal cartilage 4
- What it is
- The bar of hyaline cartilage that connects the fourth rib to the sternum.
- Location
- Extends forward from the front end of rib 4. 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
- FMA8167 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Pectoralis major (sternocostal part) arises from the upper six costal cartilages, including this one.
- Transversus thoracis, on the inner surface of the chest wall, inserts on cartilages 2–6.
Structures next to the fourth costal cartilage
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Transversus thoracis · muscular
- Third costal cartilage · skeletal
- Fifth costal cartilage · skeletal
- Anterior cardiac vein · cardiovascular
- Body of sternum · skeletal
- Septal branch of anterior interventricular artery · cardiovascular
- Anterior papillary muscle of ventricle · cardiovascular
- Conus artery · cardiovascular
- Anterior interventricular vein · cardiovascular
- Trunk of anterior interventricular branch of coronary artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Fourth costal cartilage (FMA8167). 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.