Background: The coronary vessels have been described in various species of domestic and wild ruminants. However, no studies on the detailed morphology and morphometry of heart orifices and coronary ostia in the Polish goat are available.
Materials and methods: The study was carried out on 112 female, adult dairy goats belonging to Polish Fawn Improved and Polish White Improved breed, closely related to French Alpine and Saanen, respectively.
Results: In all examined individuals, all heart orifices and heart valves were of normal structure. There was no significant difference between diameter of the aortic and pulmonary orifice. The right atrioventricular opening was significantly wider than the left atrioventricular opening. The dimension of the left coronary ostium ranged from 1.0 to 5.5 mm with the arithmetic mean (± standard deviation [SD]) of 4.3 ± 0.8 mm. The dimension of the right coronary ostium ranged from 0.5 to 5.0 mm with the arithmetic mean (± SD) of 2.8 ± 0.7 mm. Both coronary artery ostia were located under the sinotubular junction. Out of 112 examined goats, 39 (34.8%) had variations in the structure of the coronary ostia such as the lack of main trunk or the presence of additional coronary ostia. They were observed in one (in 34/39 goats) or both coronary arteries (5/39 goats).
Conclusions: In goats, the dimensions of aortic and pulmonary orifices are similar while the right atrioventricular opening outsizes the left one. On the other hand, the left coronary ostium is wider than the right one. Morphological variations in the coronary ostia occur in approximately one third of goats, more often in the right than in the left ostium.
Keywords: aortic orifice; coronary ostia; goat; heart; left atrioventricular ostium; pulmonary orifice; right atrioventricular ostium.