Posterior cusp of pulmonary valve at a glance
- Also called
- Left semilunar cusp
- What it is
- One of the three semilunar cusps of the pulmonary valve; the cusp the model (following FMA) calls posterior is the left cusp of current Terminologia Anatomica.
- Location
- It lies at the back of the pulmonary valve, at the opening of the pulmonary trunk from the right ventricle, facing the aortic root.
- Function
- It closes with the other two cusps to prevent backflow of blood into the right ventricle.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA7250 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The cusp names reflect fetal positions in current terminology (right, left, anterior) and adult positions in older terminology (right anterior, posterior, left anterior).
- Each cusp has a small central nodule on its free edge that seals the centre of the closed valve.
Structures next to the posterior cusp of pulmonary valve
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Anterior cusp of pulmonary valve · cardiovascular
- Trunk of coronary artery · cardiovascular
- Internal thoracic artery · cardiovascular
- Anterior cusp of aortic valve · cardiovascular
- Posterior cusp of aortic valve · cardiovascular
- Pulmonary trunk · cardiovascular
- Ascending aorta · cardiovascular
- Internal thoracic vein · cardiovascular
- Conus artery · cardiovascular
- Wall of atrium · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Posterior cusp of pulmonary valve (FMA7250). 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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