Allometric scaling in the coronary arterial system

Abstract

Biological variables such as basal metabolic rate scale with body mass through a power law relationship. The coronary arterial system also exhibits power law relations between morphological parameters such as total distal arterial length and lumen volume. The current study validated this power law and extended the relations to include the regional myocardial mass. The coronary arteries of 10 swine hearts were casted with a radio-opaque polymer solution and were imaged with cone-beam computed tomography. The CT images were analyzed by segmenting the vessels and myocardium. The vessels were tracked in 3D and the branch diameter, length, and lumen volume were computed. Regional myocardial mass were then computed for each branch. The perfusion beds of the three main coronary arterial trees were also colored differently to validate the measured mass and CT computed mass. The power laws for the morphological characteristics were then analyzed and the exponents were found to be 3/4 for the length-mass and length-volume relationships, and 1.0 for the volume-mass relationship. The CT computed myocardial mass (MCT) and the actual measured mass (MA) were related by MCT = 1.002 MA + 2.033 g. The relationship of the morphological parameters of the coronary arterial tree can potentially be used for quantification of diffuse coronary artery disease and anatomic area at risk.