Question

Describe the coronary circulation.

Answer 1

Coronary circulation, part of the systemic circulatory system is the circulation of blood in the blood vessels of the heart muscle (myocardium).

The vessels that deliver oxygen-rich blood to the myocardium are the coronary arteries. Two coronary arteries originate from the left side of the heart at the beginning (root) of the aorta, just after the aorta exits the left ventricle.

The vessels that remove the deoxygenated blood from the heart muscle and drain them into the right atrium are known as cardiac veins. These include the great cardiac vein, the middle cardiac vein, the small cardiac vein, the smallest cardiac veins, and the anterior cardiac veins.

The heart normally extracts 70 to 75 percent of the available oxygen from the blood in coronary circulation.