Morphological description of great cardiac vein in pigs compared to human hearts

INTRODUCTION: In spite of its importance as an experimental model, the information on the great cardiac vein in pigs is sparse. OBJECTIVE: To determine the morphologic characteristics of the great cardiac vein and its tributaries in pigs. METHODS: 120 hearts extracted from pigs destined to the slaughterhouse with stunning method were studied. This descriptive cross-over study evaluated continuous variables with T test and discrete variables with Pearson χ square test. A level of significance P<0.05 was used. The great cardiac vein and its tributaries were perfused with polyester resin (85% Palatal and 15% Styrene) and then subjected to potassium hydroxide infusion to release the subepicardial fat. Calibers were measured, and trajectories and relations with adjacent arterial structures were evaluated. RESULTS: The origin of the great cardiac vein was observed at the heart apex in 91 (76%) hearts. The arterio-venous trigone was present in 117 (97.5%) specimens, corresponding to the open expression in its lower segment and to the closed expression in the upper segment in the majority of the cases (65%). The caliber of the great cardiac vein at the upper segment of the paraconal interventricular sulcus was 3.73±0.79 mm. An anastomosis between the great cardiac vein and the middle cardiac vein was found in 59 (49%) specimens. CONCLUSION: The morphological and biometric characteristics of the great cardiac vein and its tributaries had not been reported in prior studies, and due to their similitude with those of the human heart, allows us to propose the pig model for procedural and hemodynamic applications.