Great cardiac vein at a glance
- What it is
- The great cardiac vein is the largest tributary of the coronary sinus and drains the front of the heart.
- Location
- It begins near the apex as the anterior interventricular vein and ascends in the anterior interventricular groove beside the left anterior descending artery. It then runs left and back in the coronary groove with the circumflex artery and becomes the coronary sinus where the oblique vein of the left atrium joins it.
- Function
- It drains the front of both ventricles, the anterior septum, the left atrium and the lateral wall of the left ventricle.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA4707 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The point where it becomes the coronary sinus is marked by the oblique vein of the left atrium (of Marshall) and a small valve (of Vieussens).
Structures next to the great cardiac vein
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Posterior leaflet of mitral valve · cardiovascular
- Circumflex branch of coronary artery · cardiovascular
- Superior pulmonary vein · cardiovascular
- Anterior leaflet of mitral valve · cardiovascular
- Cavity of ventricle · cardiovascular
- Wall of atrium · cardiovascular
- Fifth rib · skeletal
- Posterior cusp of aortic valve · cardiovascular
- Pulmonary artery · cardiovascular
- Cavity of atrium · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Great cardiac vein (FMA4707). 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.