The anterior interventricular artery is one of the two main branches into which the left coronary artery divides, the other being the circumflex branch. It is also known as the left anterior descending artery. It is in the lumen of this blood vessel and its side branches where most of coronary artery occlusions occur, causing heart attack.
The anterior interventricular artery arises from the left coronary. Then it descends almost vertically along the anterior interventricular groove as it runs down all the way to the apex of the heart, arching over it. Next, it enters the terminal part of the inferior interventricular groove, penetrating deep into the myocardium.
Along its course, the anterior interventricular artery first sends secondary branches to the infundibulum (conus arteriosus), which is the anterosuperior portion of right ventricle. Then, as it keeps traveling downwards, it gives off the diagonal branch, which runs obliquely downwards across the left ventricle, as well as other smaller branches to the nearest areas of the right and left ventricle. The branches extending over the left ventricle are longer, with more offshoots, than those on the right.
Function: it supplies all the parts and tissues that make up the heart (myocardium, epicardium, endocardium, pericardium, and other structures).
Below, the human heart, with its arterial vessels. The anterior interventricular artery is clearly labeled.
