Thoracic aorta
part of the aorta located in the thorax
The thoracic aorta is a part of the aorta located in the thorax. It is a continuation of the aortic arch. It is located within the posterior mediastinal cavity, but frequently bulges into the left pleural cavity. The descending thoracic aorta begins at the lower border of the fourth thoracic vertebra and ends in front of the lower border of the twelfth thoracic vertebra, at the aortic hiatus in the diaphragm where it becomes the abdominal aorta.
At its commencement, it is situated on the left of the vertebral column; it approaches the median line as it descends; and, at its termination, lies directly in front of the column.
The thoracic aorta has a curved shape that faces forward, and has small branches. It has a radius of approximately 1.16 cm.
Structure
The thoracic aorta is part of the descending aorta, which has different parts named according to their structure or location. The thoracic aorta is a continuation of the descending aorta and becomes the abdominal aorta when it passes through the diaphragm. The initial part of the aorta, the ascending aorta, rises out of the left ventricle, from which it is separated by the aortic valve.
“Thoracic aorta” enters the record as part of the aorta located in the thorax. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Thoracic, aorta and part can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q615993. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thoracic aorta” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.