Coexisting Unilateral Left Pulmonary Artery Agenesis and Persistent Left Superior Vena Cava: Two Very Rare Congenital Malformations

Persistent Left Superior Vena Cava

Persistent left superior vena cava

Persistent left superior vena cava (PLSVC) is the most common congenital malformation of thoracic venous return and is present in 0.3 to 0.5% of individuals in the general population. This heart specimen was dissected from a 35-year-old male cadaver whose cause of death was determined as non-cardiac. The heart was examined and we found a PLSVC draining into the coronary sinus. The right superio...

A persistent left superior vena cava.

Persistent left superior vena cava is the most common form of anomalous venous drainage involving the superior vena cava, and represents persistence of the left horn of the embryonic sinus venosus, which normally involutes during normal development to become the coronary sinus. Almost always, a persistent left superior vena cava enters the right atrium through the orifice of an enlarged coronar...

Persistent left superior vena cava draining the pulmonary veins.

Persistence of the left superior vena cava is not uncommon in children with congenital heart disease and is occasionally found in adults at thoracotomy. The anomalous vena cava usually carries venous blood from the upper part of the body to the right atrium via the coronary sinus and has little functional significance. In the four patients we describe, however, the left superior vena cava drain...

Images in cardiovascular medicine: Concomitant persistent left superior vena cava and agenesis of right superior vena cava: a rare congenital anomaly.

A 21-year-old white male athlete was admitted for syncope. ECG and telemetry showed sinus arrhythmia and sinus bradycardia; at this time, he was asymptomatic. A chest radiograph showed unremarkable findings (Figure 1). During his transthoracic echocardiogram, a massive coronary sinus (area, 3.9 cm) was identified (Figure 2). Because of suspicion of a persistent left superior vena cava (PLSVC), ...