35 - Semilunar-like Valve over the Ostium of the Right Coronary Artery

Poster Board Number: 35
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Abstract Body : Upon body donor dissection of a heart belonging to an 85-year-old male body donor, with a cause of death listed as Alzheimer’s disease, a right coronary artery was discovered with a semilunar-like valve overlying the right coronary ostium above the right aortic sinus. This variation of the right coronary ostium appears to be a rare observation both in the lab and in the research literature. During embryological development the coronary arteries develop from the venous plexus on the surrounding surface of the heart, and form two singular tubes along the anterior and posterior interventricular sulci. These arterial tubes grow upwards in the sulci and fuse onto each side of the aorta, creating ostial openings for oxygenated blood to flow from the aorta into the tubes, now referred to as coronary arteries. Embryological remnants, or a more vertical growth of these arterial growths into the aorta, may have created the overlay (valve) of the ostium, and could potentially imped blood flow into the coronary arteries during systole. A survey of the remaining thirty body donors was completed to view the ostia and this embryological remnant of an overlying valve-like structure, with none being observed in the remaining body donors.