Coronary dominance pattern among the population of coastal Karnataka: A cadaveric study

Abstract               Background: The anatomy of coronary arteries is of great clinical importance and any variation is significant for proper interpretation of coronary angiogaraphies and for further surgical repair. The term ‘coronary dominance’ is described based on the artery that gives rise to posterior interventricular branch. If the posterior interventricular artery is a branch of right coronary artery, then it is said to be right dominant circulation. If from the left circumflex artery, then it is left dominant circulation and if it arises from both right coronary and left circumflex arteries then it is said to be co-dominant or balanced circulation. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out in the department of Anatomy, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India. The study was performed on 50 formalin fixed human hearts of unknown sex and age. The coronary arteries and their branches were carefully dissected out till their termination. The coronary dominance pattern was observed, noted and photographed. Results: Of the 50 human hearts that were studied, 45 hearts showed right coronary dominance with posterior interventricular artery originating form right coronary artery, 04 hearts showed left coronary dominance with posterior interventricular artery originating form left circumflex artery and the remaining 01 heart showed co-dominance with posterior interventricular artery originating from both right coronary artery and left circumflex artery. Conclusion: Right coronary dominance was the most commonest and the co-dominance was the least common among the samples studied.

Key Word: Coronary dominance, Left circumflex artery, Posterior Interventricular artery, Right coronary artery.