Great cardiac vein

Looks like

A vein running up the front groove between the ventricles and then around the left side of the heart to the coronary sinus.

What it does

Drains the front of both ventricles and much of the left atrium and ventricle.

Keeping it well

Used as a route for pacing leads and for some catheter treatments of irregular heartbeats.

Related conditions

• 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DiGeorge)
• Aortic stenosis
• Atrial flutter
• Cardiomyopathy (dilated, restrictive, arrhythmogenic)
• Chagas disease
• Chronic venous insufficiency
• Clotting disorders (thrombophilia & APS)
• Congenital heart defects
• Coronary artery disease
• Deep vein thrombosis
• Diphtheria
• Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
• Eating disorders
• Extra heartbeats (ectopics and palpitations)
• Fainting (syncope)
• Friedreich's ataxia
• Heart failure
• Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
• Hypothermia & frostbite
• Kawasaki disease
• Long QT syndrome
• Myocarditis
• Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
• Panic disorder
• Pericardial effusion & tamponade
• Pericarditis
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• Sudden cardiac arrest
• Sudden infant death syndrome
• Supraventricular tachycardia
• Takotsubo (stress) cardiomyopathy
• Tuberous sclerosis complex
• Varicose veins
• Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome