Vascularization of the left heart of a German shepherd

Abstract

The variability of branching of the coronary arteries of the heart determines the dominance of one artery over the other in the left or right coronary types of blood supply. Thus, in the left coronary type, the right coronary artery is poorly developed and vascularizes a small area of the heart, or may be completely absent. The same phenomenon, respectively, can be observed in the right-handed type with the left coronary artery. The German Shepherd is a typical representative of the leftcoronary type of blood supply to the heart, like all other representatives of its species. The aim of our study is to study the vascularization of the left half of the German Shepherd heart. To study the vascular bed of the German Shepherd heart, ten corpses of dogs of this breed were obtained at the age of two to three years after forced euthanasia. The cadaveric material was delivered from private clinics in St. Petersburg to the Department of Animal Anatomy of the St. Petersburg State University of Veterinary Medicine. The vascular bed of the heart of a German Shepherd was investigated by applying such methods as fine anatomical preparation with filling the vascular bed with latex, as well as corrosion treatment of the obtained material. As a result of the study, it was found that the source of vascularization of the left half of the heart is the left coronary artery and its main arteries, including the paraconal, subsinus, circumferential, left interventricular and left diagonal arteries. The subsinusoid artery is a branch of the left coronary artery, while the right coronary artery does not reach the region of the subsinus sulcus. The interventricular septum of the heart in a German Shepherd is completely vascularized by branches of the left coronary artery. The main artery in this case is the left interventricular artery. The results obtained confirm that the presence of a left-coronary type of blood supply to the heart in an animal does not determine that the region of the subsinus sulcus will be vascularized by the branches of the right coronary artery.