= J. R. Ortale
{c}
\b[J. R. Ortale] is the first named author of a primary anatomical study of the <coronary sinus> and its tributary <veins>. The paper's byline uses these initials. Ortale and colleagues dissected 37 formalin-fixed adult human hearts, recording venous connections and relationships between <veins> and <arteries>.<The anatomy of the coronary sinus and its tributaries by J. R. Ortale and others>[Byline and Abstract; Surgical and Radiologic Anatomy 23, 15–21 (2001), DOI 10.1007/s00276-001-0015-0]{ref}
The observations make anatomical variation concrete. The <small cardiac vein> was present in 54% of examined specimens, and a connection of approximately 1 mm calibre between anterior and posterior interventricular <veins> was found in 19%. These are specimen observations, not universal drawings of one invariant venous arrangement.<The anatomy of the coronary sinus and its tributaries by J. R. Ortale and others>[Abstract, venous presence and anastomosis observations]{ref} An artery's familiar route does not uniquely determine the course of an adjacent <vein>.
<Sampling limits in anatomical variant frequencies> distinguish an observed absence from a universal absence. In an original hypothetical example, suppose a different variant is seen zero times in 37 independent, representative specimens. Under a <binomial distribution> model, a population frequency $p$ gives probability $(1-p)^{37}$ of that observation. Solving $(1-p)^{37}=0.05$ gives $p\approx0.0778$: even zero observed cases would be compatible with a one-sided 95% upper bound near 7.8% under those assumptions. This hypothetical calculation is not a result reported in Ortale's paper, and its sampling assumptions need justification.
Dissection establishes visible structural relationships in preserved specimens. It does not directly measure living <blood flow>, pressure or whether a particular connection carries a substantial flow under a given condition. The study's value is therefore both anatomical and methodological: document what was observed, distinguish prevalence in the specimen set from a population claim, and keep structural evidence separate from a physiological flow measurement.
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