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Figure 1 The cardiac venous system. (A) The border of the coronary sinus (CS) is marked by the vein of Marshall (VM). The CS continues in the great cardiac vein (GCV), which continues anteriorly in the anterior interventricular vein (AIV). As seen from the right atrium (RA), the first tributary of the CS is the posterior interventricular vein (PIV). The next tributaries are the posterior vein of the left ventricle (PVLV) and left marginal vein (LMV). (B) Left = variant 1; middle = variant 2; right = variant 3. See text for explanation. (C) Left = the CS ostium measured in the anteroposterior direction; transverse plane; right = the CS ostium in superoinferior direction; coronal plane. (D) Measurement of the distances between the different tributaries of the cardiac venous drainage system. Ant = anterior; AP = pulmonary artery; Ao = aorta; LA = left atrium; LV = left ventricle; RV = right ventricle.