European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: The area near opening of pulmonary veins into the left atrium act as triggering focus of the electrical activity in atrial fibrillation. Selective radiofrequency ablations of these foci are being performed to treat patients with drug resistant atrial fibrillation. So the accurate knowledge about variations of pulmonary veins and their drainage pattern is very important for diagnostic and therapeutic intervention in atrial fibrillation. Materials and Method: Fifty formalin fixed adult cadaveric hearts were included in the present cross sectional observational study. The heart were examined for the variations in the number of pulmonary veins (and pulmonary ostia) opens into left atrium through pulmonary ostium and their drainage pattern.