Pulmonary vein pulmonary vein lies in front of and a little below the pulmonary artery; the inferior is situated at the lowest part of the lung hilum. Behind the pulmonary artery is the bronchus. The right main pulmonary veins (contains oxygenated blood) pass behind the right atrium and superior vena cava; the left in front of the descending thoracic aorta. Occasionally the three lobar veins on the right side remain separate, and not infrequently the two left lobar veins end by a common opening into the left atrium. Therefore, the number of pulmonary veins opening into the left atrium can vary between
Vein and veins; these were later discovered by Marcello Malpighi in 1661. In 1956, André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann and Dickinson W. Richards were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system." In his Nobel lecture, Forssmann credits Harvey as birthing cardiology with the publication of his book in 1628. In the 1970s, Diana McSherry developed computer-based systems to create images of the circulatory system and heart without the need for surgery. Vein Veins are blood vessels that carry blood toward the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the