[Adaptive structure or arterial and venous sections of the coronary basin in congenital defects of the heart].

A complex of histological techniques was used to examine 179 abnormally developed hearts. The vascular bed of the organ showed a number of adaptive structures that controlled blood motion. In the arterial portion, they appeared as advential and intimal musculature, polypoid cushions, muscular constrictors, and precapillary sphincters; in the venous one, they involve the system of simple and muscular valves, intimal and muscular cushions, connective tissue and muscular bridges. All these structures were found to be located in the area of cardiac vascular bifurcations. The regulatory function of some of the structures is effected by cardiac musculature rather than smooth muscles. The coordination of these formations provides the prolonged maintained compensatory status of the deformed heart. The abnormal changes in the adaptive structures of coronary system amount to their dystrophy, atrophy, and sclerosis, which is one of the manifestations of cardiac decompensation.