Papillary muscles and tendinous cords of the right ventricle of the human heart morphological characteristics

Abstract

A series of 79 normal human hearts was studied focusing on the morphological characteristics of the papillary muscles of the right ventricle and their tendinous cords (chordae tendineae). The number, incidence, length and shape of the anterior, septal and posterior papillary muscles were observed. The tendinous cords attached to each papillary muscle were counted at their origin. The papillary muscles and the tendinous cords were measured in situ and after the removal of the right atrioventricular valve (tricuspid valve). The anterior and posterior papillary muscles (apm, ppm) were present in 100% of the cases. The septal papillary muscle (spm) was absent in 21.5% of the hearts. The apm presented 1 head in 81% and 2 heads in 19%; it was 19.16 mm in length. The spm was one-headed in 41.7% and presented two heads in 16.5%; the presence of a 3 and 4 heads appeared in 12.7% and 7.6% respectively; the spm was 5.59 mm in length. The ppm had 1 head in 25.4%, 2 heads in 46.8%, 3 heads in 21.5% and 4 heads in 6.3% of the cases; it was 11.53 mm in length. Tendinous cords (TC) varied as follows: from 1 to 11 TC originated in the apm (mean 4.74); from 1 to 8 TC originated in the ppm (mean 2.67) and from 1 to 5 TC originated in the spm (mean 1.77).

A Morphometric Study of the Papillary Muscles of the Right Ventricle of Human Cadaveric Hearts in North-West Indian Population

“…These values are almost similar to those found by Nigri et al 8 . However, these authors 8 also found arched and wavy type of APM in 4.3% and 1% of cases respectively.…”

“…2,8,9,10 Number of heads ranged from 1 to 3 in the present study which is in conformation with the standard text books of anatomy. 2,9,10 Four heads of Ppm were seen only in the study by Nigri et al 8 The incidence of two heads of Ppm is the most common arrangement found in the present study as well as others. 8 The incidence of 3 heads was 33% in the present study, which is higher as compared to the Caucasian study 8 (20%).…”

“…The difference was not statistically significant. Nigri et al 8 described presence of single head in 79% cases (77% in males and 95% in females).…”

“…2,8,9,10 The percentage of incidence of heads of APM is variable. APM has been described, as being occasionally bifid.…”

Morphological Study of Tricuspid Valve And Its Variations in Adult Human Hearts.

“…It was single headed in 16 cases, double headed in 26 Cases. Nigri GR et al in 2001 [15] studied the morphological characteristics of the papillary muscles and tendinous cords of the right ventricle in 79 normal human hearts. They observed the number, incidence, length and shape of the anterior, septal, and posterior papillary muscles and they counted the tendinous cords attached to each papillary muscle at their origin.…”