Morphometry of the dog pulmonary venous tree.
The biophysical approach to the study of blood flow in the pulmonary vasculature requires a detailed description of vascular geometry and branching pattern. The description of the pulmonary venous morphometry in the dog is the focus of this paper. Silicone elastomer casts of a dog lung were made and were used to measure the diameters, lengths, and branching pattern of the pulmonary venous vasculature. The anatomic data are presented statistically with a diameter-defined Strahler ordering scheme, a rule for assigning the order numbers of the vessels on the basis of a diameter criterion. The asymmetric branching pattern of the pulmonary venous vasculature is described with a connectivity matrix. Results show that for the dog's right pulmonary venous tree 1) a total of 11 orders of vessels lay between the left atrium and the capillary bed; 2) the average ratios of the diameter, length, and number of branches of successive orders of veins were 1.701, 1.556, and 3.762, respectively; and 3) a fractal description of the tree geometry resulted in diameter and length fractal dimensions of 2.49 and 2.99, respectively. The morphometric data were used to compute the cross-sectional area, vascular volume, and Poiseuillean resistance in the venous vessels.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Memphis State University, Tennessee 38152.
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D000818:Animals; D001810:Blood Volume / Q000502:physiology; D004285:Dogs; D008168:Lung / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011651:Pulmonary Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D011652:Pulmonary Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D011667:Pulmonary Veins / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012826:Silicone Elastomers
D012826:Silicone Elastomers