 Anterior interventricular sulcus

The anterior interventricular sulcus is the external groove between the right ventricle and left ventricle on the anterior surface of the heart. The left anterior descending artery and the anterior course of the great cardiac vein follow this region toward the cardiac apex.^[ref]

The name is a position description: anterior refers to the front-facing surface and interventricular to the two neighboring ventricular chambers. The anterior interventricular sulcus helps orient a specimen before the heart is opened. By contrast, the interventricular septum separates the cavities internally. A surface line in a photograph and a wall in an opened specimen are different views of related anatomy.

For an illuminating comparison, trace the left anterior descending artery from the left coronary artery toward the cardiac apex, then trace the nearby great cardiac vein toward the coronary sinus. Shared location does not imply shared flow direction or identical branching. Direct dissection also shows that superficial/deep relationships between these vessels vary; an anatomical study of 37 hearts documented such vein–artery relationships rather than assuming one invariant crossing pattern.^[ref]