Anatomical study of length and branching pattern of main trunk of the left coronary artery

Abstract

The left coronary artery is responsible for the irrigation of important heart structures. The objective of this study was to analyze the morphological characteristics of the main trunk of left coronary artery in the Brazilian population and its clinical implications. The study was carried out by using 63 adult human hearts of the human anatomy laboratory of the Federal university of Ceará, Brazil. The hearts were dissected for exposure and analysis of the left coronary artery and its branches. The data collected were statistically analyzed. The main trunk arose from the left aortic sinus under the left atrial auricle in all the 63 hearts. The mean length of the main trunk was 8.53±4.03mm. According to the criteria for the classification of the main trunk length, about 78% were medium-sized. The majority of the hearts (52.38%) showed trifurcation of the main trunk. Anova test followed by the Tukey's post hoc test showed that the main trunk length of hearts with trifurcation was significantly longer when compared with hearts with bifurcation (9.77±4.31mm vs. 6.44±3.01mm; P=0.0029). Similar findings were observed in the main trunk length of the hearts with tetrafurcation in comparison with hearts with bifurcation (10.78±1.4mm vs. 6.44±3.01mm; P=0.0387). This study showed that there is a correlation between the branching pattern and the length of the main trunk. Additionally, we showed that the most common branching pattern of the main trunk is the trifurcation, differing from other Brazilian studies and providing additional information to professionals of cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, and radiology.