Coronary veins

Abstract

Investigation performed on the venous system of the heart is overshadowed by the numerous studies performed on the arterial side of coronary vessels. Recent development in cardiac pacing and transvenous ablations asks for a thorough and a more detailed knowledge of the cardiac venous anatomy and function, concomitantly demonstrating the increasing value of the coronary venous system (CVS) imaging. With increasing longevity of patients with congenital heart disease (CHD), long-term complications including heart failure and arrhythmias have led to increased interest in the roles of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) and radiofrequency ablation in these patients. CT and MR can play an important role in assessment of cardiac morphology and coronary vessel mapping. A detailed review of the anatomical particulars of the CVS represents the major topic of this chapter. The variations, anomalies, and modifications encountered in normal hearts and CHD are subsequently presented. We briefly review clinical applications of this system in CRT. The description of anatomic variants of cardiac veins may also be important for retrograde cardioplegia perfusion (RCP).