Pulmonary artery at a glance
- What it is
- An artery carrying deoxygenated blood from the heart to a lung.
- Location
- The right and left pulmonary arteries arise from the pulmonary trunk and enter the lung hila, dividing with the bronchi into lobar and segmental arteries.
- Function
- They carry deoxygenated blood to the lungs for gas exchange.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA50873 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood, unlike most arteries.
- The right pulmonary artery passes behind the ascending aorta and superior vena cava.
- The left pulmonary artery is shorter and arches over the left main bronchus; the right is longer and passes beneath the aortic arch, in front of the right main bronchus.
Clinical relevance
Pulmonary embolism occurs when a clot blocks a pulmonary artery.
Structures next to the pulmonary artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Superior pulmonary vein · cardiovascular
- Fourth rib · skeletal
- Main bronchus · respiratory
- Great cardiac vein · cardiovascular
- Main bronchus proper · respiratory
- Trunk of coronary artery · cardiovascular
- Posterior cusp of aortic valve · cardiovascular
- Third rib · skeletal
- Fifth rib · skeletal
- Wall of atrium · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Pulmonary artery (FMA50873). 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.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.