Ventricular coronary arteries of beagles

Abstract

Summary Variations in branching pattern and distribution of dog coronary arteries have been studied by many investigators. The present study was undertaken to determine whether or not as much variation existed in the coronary artery patterns in closely related pedigreed dogs as is reported to occur in randomly selected mongrels. Coronary arteries were dissected from the hearts of 37 F 2 's from sibbed F 1 purebred beagles. Left coronary artery preponderance was observed in 95 % of the hearts, a condition reported to occur in only 20 % of human hearts. A left common coronary artery was observed in 54 %; in the remaining 46 %, the ventral interventricular and left circumflex arteries arose separately from a single ostium in the aortic wall. The interventricular septum received most of its blood supply from a large branch of the ventral interventricular artery, the ventral septal artery, which arose in 55 % of the mature hearts within 1.5 mm of the aortic wall. Most variation in pattern of the right coronary artery system was found in the origin of vessels to the conus, to the sino-atrial node and to the right ventricular myocardium. It was concluded that as much or more variation in branching pattern occurred in these closely related purebred dogs as is reported to occur in random mongrel populations.