title: Scaling laws of coronary circulation in health and disease.
abstract: The heterogeneity and complexity of coronary vasculature (structure) and myocardial flow (function) have fractal-like characteristics and can be described by scaling laws with remarkable simplicity. In contrast with allometric (interspecific) scaling law, intraspecific scaling laws describe the design rules of vascular trees within a species. This paper provides an overview of intraspecific scaling laws of vascular trees and the physiological and clinical implications thereof. The significance and shortcomings of these scaling laws are discussed in relation to diffuse coronary artery disease, Glagov's positive remodeling in early stages of coronary atherosclerosis, treatment guidelines of complex bifurcation lesions, and for estimation of outlet resistance values for computation of blood flow in epicardial coronary arteries. Finally, we summarize the highlights of scaling relations and suggest some future directions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, China; State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; College of Medicine, Hebei University, Baoding, China. Electronic address: yhuo@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yunlong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huo
authors.affiliation: California Medical Innovations Institute, 11107 Roselle Street, Rm. 211, San Diego, CA 92121, USA. Electronic address: gkassab@calmi2.org.
authors.forename: Ghassan S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Kassab
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000502:physiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006262:Health; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular
keywords: Coronary circulation; Coronary vasculature; Fractal dimension; Scaling power law