Fig. 3

A "blown up" image (left panel) of the aortic root and the pulmonary artery root in the two-handed model. The dashed yellow line marks the direction of the joints, which is consistent with the direction of the aortic/pulmonary sinus. According to this characteristic, we can infer that the noncoronary aortic sinus is the most inferior; the left coronary aortic sinus is the most superior; and the left adjacent pulmonary sinus is inferior to the other two pulmonary sinuses. The right panel shows native bony protrusions (stars), and intersection angles (triangles) can be regarded as three aortic/pulmonary sinuses. A one-to-one correspondence: blue star versus nonadjacent/anterior pulmonary sinus; left/right blue triangle versus left/right pulmonary sinus; red star versus right coronary sinus; left/right red triangle versus left/noncoronary sinus. However, the model cannot depict cardiac histology. For example, the dashed white lines form the sinutubular junction. The dotted black line shows the ventriculo-arterial junction. The area beneath the dotted black line (red stars) shows the myocardial crescents incorporated at the bases of the aortic/pulmonary sinuses