title: Intraspecific scaling of arterial blood pressure in the Burmese python.
abstract: Interspecific allometric analyses indicate that mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) increases with body mass of snakes and mammals. In snakes, MAP increases in proportion to the increased distance between the heart and the head, when the heart-head vertical distance is expressed as ρgh (where ρ is the density of blood, G: is acceleration due to gravity and h is the vertical distance above the heart), and the rise in MAP is associated with a larger heart to normalize wall stress in the ventricular wall. Based on measurements of MAP in Burmese pythons ranging from 0.9 to 3.7 m in length (0.20-27 kg), we demonstrate that although MAP increases with body mass, the rise in MAP is merely half of that predicted by heart-head distance. Scaling relationships within individual species, therefore, may not be accurately predicted by existing interspecific analyses.
authors.affiliation: Zoophysiology, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Sanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Enok
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Slay
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, São Paulo 15054-000, Brazil.
authors.forename: Augusto S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA.
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hicks
authors.affiliation: Zoophysiology, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark tobias.wang@biology.au.dk.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D062186:Arterial Pressure; D017821:Boidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate
keywords: Allometry; Blood pressure; Cardiovascular; Gravity; Scaling; Snakes