The white ramus communicans (plural: rami communicantes, ramus means branch) is the preganglionic sympathetic outflow nerve tract from the spinal cord.
Each of the thoracic, and the first and second lumbar nerves contribute a white ramus communicans to the adjoining sympathetic ganglion., unlike the gray rami which are located at each spinal level. White rami communicantes contain both myelinated and unmyelinated preganglionic sympathetic fibers, (GVE and GVA). The white ramus appears white because there are more myelinated than unmyelinated fibers unlike the gray rami.
Read more about White Ramus Communicans: Additional Info, See Also
Famous quotes containing the word white:
“But seldom the laurel wreath is seen
Unmixed with pensive pansies dark;
There’s a light and a shadow on every man
Who at last attains his lifted mark—
Nursing through night the ethereal spark.
Elate he never can be;
He feels that spirits which glad had hailed his worth,
Sleep in oblivion.—The shark
Glides white through the phosphorus sea.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)