Iván A. Pineda-Betancurt; Luis E. Ballesteros-Acuña & Fabián A. Gómez-Torres

Information on the coronary irrigation of canines is scarce despite its great importance in the context of comparative anatomy and its applications in veterinary medicine. The objective was to perform a qualitative and biometric characterization of the coronary arteries in canines. Using the vascular bed perfusion technique, semisynthetic resin (Palatal GP40L 80 % and styrene 20 %) was injected into the arterial beds of 30 hearts from deceased dogs in veterinary clinics, which were categorized by weight as follows: <10 kg; (10 - 19 kg; 20 - 29 kg; ≥30 kg. The left coronary artery presented a caliber of 3.25 mm, significantly larger than that of the right coronary artery (p=0.01). The left coronary artery was bifurcated in 22 (73.3 %) hearts and trifurcated in 8 (26.7 %). The paraconal interventricular branch terminated in 20 cases (66.7 %) in the posterior aspect of the left ventricle and in the 10 - 19 kg group the termination distance of this branch to the apex was 10.53 +/-4.46 mm. Anastomosis at the level of the cardiac apex between the paraconal interventricular branch and the subsinusal interventricular branch was recorded in 4 cases (13.3 %). The pattern of coronary dominance was left in the whole sample, with subtype II in 25 hearts (83.3 %) and subtype III in 5 cases (16.7 %). Myocardial bridges were visualized in 2 cases (6.7 %). The detailed description of the coronary arteries and their branches, as well as their morphometry, considering the weight ranges of the canines carried out in the present study allows us to identify the differences in this vasculature in each of the groups evaluated. These findings may contribute to the improvement of clinical and interventional management involved in the cardiology of the species.

KEY WORDS: Canines; Coronary irrigation; Left coronary artery; Right coronary artery; Coronary dominance.

PINEDA-BETANCURT, I. A.; BALLESTEROS-ACUÑA, L. E. & GÓMEZ-TORRES, F. A. Qualitative and morphometric characterization of coronary arteries in canines (Canis lupus familiaris). A direct anatomical study. Int. J. Morphol., 43(3):1059-1069, 2025.