vein

1. any of the tubular vessels that convey oxygen-depleted blood to the heart

2. any of the hollow branching tubes that form the supporting framework of an insect's wing

3. any of the vascular strands of a leaf

4. a clearly defined mass of ore, mineral, etc., filling a fault or fracture, often with a tabular or sheetlike shape

5. a natural underground watercourse

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

vein

[vān]

(anatomy)

A relatively thin-walled blood vessel that carries blood from capillaries to the heart in vertebrates.

(botany)

One of the vascular bundles in a leaf.

(geology)

A mineral deposit in tabular or shell-like form filling a fracture in a host rock.

(invertebrate zoology)

One of the thick, stiff ribs providing support for the wing of an insect.

A venous sinus in invertebrates.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Vein

a mineral body filling a fissure in rock. Simple veins are single mineralized fissures; complex veins are clusters of interwoven fissures or of zones of fracturing or schist formation. According to their morphological details veins are called lenticular, chambered, saddle-reef, ladder, or feather. Veins that cut across the layers of enclosing rock are called intersecting veins; those that lie in conformity with the stratification and dip of the enclosing rock are called stratified. The length of veins of mineral products varies from 1 m or less to 200 km—for example, the veins of gold ore in California. In terms of dip some veins taper off close to the earth’s surface, and others, for example, the vein of the Kolar deposit in India, are worked at a depth of more than 3 km. A vein has a geological and a working thickness, the minimum thickness for exploiting the vein deposit. Depending on the value of the constituent minerals, the working thickness of a vein may vary from several centimeters to dozens of meters.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

If the rent in internal iliac vein is not visualized, the internal iliac artery may be transected between the two sutures for better visualization.

Physiological menstrual rhythm and fertility after internal iliac artery ligation

Sometimes, only the external iliac vein drains into left IVC and the internal iliac vein crosses the midline to drain into the right common iliac vein [9].

Congenital Vitelline Band Causing Intestinal Obstruction in an Adult with a Double Inferior Vena Cava

Retroperitoneal dissection was done, ureter was visualized and retracted .The internal iliac artery was carefully dissected and separated from fragile internal iliac vein. The artery was then lifted and looped around twice with No.2 Sutupack suture.

Bilateral internal iliac artery ligation-a boon for severe post partum hemorrhage

Ferumoxytol contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance venography (MRV) (2), demonstrated a large infrahepatic caval thrombus extending from the IVC filter down into the bilateral common, external and internal iliac veins and nonocclusive thrombus within the transplant renal vein (Fig.

Salvage of renal transplant with vacuum-assisted thrombectomy of large iliocaval and allograft venous outflow thrombus

Venous Doppler echography showed thrombosed left common femoral vein, thrombosed external and internal iliac veins with hypoechoic thrombus, inferior vena cava identified only at the origin, with reduced caliber, permeable right venous axis.

Vena cava hypoplasia VTE

The absence of the right common iliac vein, right external & internal iliac veins and right proximal common femoral vein was also seen.

Absence of infra-renal segment of inferior vena cava with anomalous right renal vein