Myocardial fiber architecture of the human heart ventricles.

The ventricular fiber architecture has been studied anatomically and histologically in 25 human hearts. Special attention has been paid to the form of insertion of the myocardial fibers and to the existence or nonexistence of an independent system of fibers for each ventricle. Three different myocardial layers--superficial (subepicardial), middle, and deep (subendocardial)--have been distinguished according to the fiber direction through the ventricular mass. All the fibers are common for both ventricles with the exception of a thick middle layer peculiar to the left ventricle. The tendinous cords, the central fibrous body, and the arterial fibrous rings are the major zones of insertion of myocardial fibers. On the basis of our results we have attempted to correlate the ventricular architecture with the valvular dynamics.