Anatomy of the crista supraventricularis: its importance for understanding right ventricular function, right ventricular infarction and related conditions.

During careful studies of the human cardiac conduction system the anatomy of the crista supraventricularis is an inescapable concomitant demonstration. For the purpose of this report the observations from about 1,000 human hearts were combined with special additional studies of 75 human hearts (50 adults, 25 infants), 30 dogs and 5 chickens. The crista supraventricularis is similar in human and canine hearts. Avian hearts differ from mammal hearts in that they contain only a muscular right atrioventricular valve which replaces the crista supraventricularis. In addition to dividing the inflow and outflow pathways of the right ventricle, the crista supraventricularis is crucially located to join the interventricular septum and left ventricle to much of the right ventricular free wall, thereby playing an important role in emptying the right ventricle and closing the tricuspid valve. On the basis of these observations, the function of the crista supraventricularis is examined relative to right ventricular systole, right ventricular infarction, various electrophysiologic problems, the performance of cardiac surgery and new questions in cardiac imaging.