[Variation in the course of human veins based on the anatomical and morphometric research]

The cardiac veins have inspired numerous generations of researchers. From anatomists and pathologists to cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, the issue of the structure of heart and cardiovascular disorders- in spite of enormous progress of medicine - have not been completely discovered so far.

The material of the research comes from the collection of the Chair and Department of Normal and Clinical Anatomy of the Pomeranian Medical University and it includes 102 human hearts, of which 59 male and 43 female ones, aged from 12 and 70. Both coronary veins and arteries of the tested hearts were filled with the epoxy resin, which allowed for thorough exposing and differentiating between the venous vessels and the arterial vessels. The aim of this study was to assessing the interrelationships between the dimensions of the heart, the size of the coronary sinus, the length of the cardiac veins and a sex. Also determined the frequency and variability of cardiac veins run in the material, as well as the correlation between the topography of the course of the great cardiac vein, the middle cardiac vein, the branches of the left and right coronary arteries and the cardiac size and a gender. The measurements of the heart and the veins were made with the use of a pair of spherical compasses, an electronic caliper, a goniometer and a planimeter.

It was found that the size of the male heart is statistically significantly greater than the female one. The dimensions of the heart correlated positively with the diameter and the length of the coronary sinus (CS) and the length of the great cardiac vein (GCV), the middle cardiac vein (MCV) and the small cardiac vein (SCV). The length of the CS positively correlated with its diameter and the length of the veins draining into it. The veins which were not always present in the tested material included: the SCV, the right marginal vein (RMV), the oblique vein of the left atrium (OVLA), the left marginal vein (LMV). It was found that the length of the GCV and the MCV in males were statistically significantly greater. The length of the MCV positively correlated with the length of the GCV, the SCV, the OVLA, the posterior vein of the left ventricle (PVLV), the LMV. The anastomoses between the GCV and the MCV were more often found in males and it was a statistically significant difference. It was found that there is a positive correlation between the venous arch connecting the GCV and the MCV and the length of the GCV. The anastomoses between the PVLV and the MCV and the LMV did not correlated with a sex, but it statistically significantly correlated with the length of the right and left PVLV and with the length of the MCV.