whale's tail

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

whale's tail (plural whale's tails)

1. (slang) The distal bifurcation of the left anterior descending coronary artery.
   • 2000, Donald S. Baim, William Grossman, Grossman's Cardiac Catheterization, Angiography, and Intervention, Lippincott Raven:

     […] anterior descending coronary artery (i.e. the "mustache," "pitchfork," or "whale's tail"; Fig. 18.6, top); in the circumflex system, the distal bifurcation of the segment with the longest total distance that includes the […]

   • 2007, Eric J. Topol, Robert M. Califf, Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, →ISBN, page 1227:

     It then bifurcates distally and tapers out as a "whale's tail" at the cardiac apex, although sometimes it wraps around the apex to supply part of the inferior wall.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: The tail of a whale.

Related terms

• whale tail

Anagrams

• whale tails