3D architecture of myocardial microcirculation in intact rat heart: a study with micro-CT.

The branching geometry of the coronary arterial tree may play a significant role in the observed spatial heterogeneity in myocardial perfusion. To provide more insight into this possibility we used a micro-CT scanner to image the intact rat heart and its opacified coronary arterial tree, for quantitative analysis of the coronary arterial architecture. Results show a consistent pattern of branching throughout the heart wall.

[1]  H N Mayrovitz,et al.  Microvascular blood flow: evidence indicating a cubic dependence on arteriolar diameter. , 1983, The American journal of physiology.

[2]  E. vanBavel,et al.  Branching patterns in the porcine coronary arterial tree. Estimation of flow heterogeneity. , 1992, Circulation research.

[3]  D. Edwards,et al.  Basal EDRF activity helps to keep the geometrical configuration of arterial bifurcations close to the Murray optimum. , 1990, Journal of theoretical biology.

[4]  T. M. Griffith,et al.  Endothelium‐derived relaxing factor (EDRF) and resistance vessels in an intact vascular bed: a microangiographic study of the rabbit isolated ear , 1988, British journal of pharmacology.

[5]  C D Murray,et al.  The Physiological Principle of Minimum Work: I. The Vascular System and the Cost of Blood Volume. , 1926, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[6]  E. L. Ritman,et al.  Automatic extraction of the arterial tree from 3-D angiograms , 1989, Images of the Twenty-First Century. Proceedings of the Annual International Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society,.

[7]  B L Langille,et al.  Branching characteristics of coronary arteries in rats. , 1984, Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology.

[8]  S. J. Elliott,et al.  The H2O2‐Generating Enzyme, Xanthine Oxidase, Decreases Luminal Ca2+ Content of the IP3‐Sensitive Ca2+ Store in Vascular Endothelial Cells , 1995, Microcirculation.

[9]  D. Edwards,et al.  EDRF coordinates the behaviour of vascular resistance vessels , 1987, Nature.

[10]  C. D. Murray.  THE PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM WORK APPLIED TO THE ANGLE OF BRANCHING OF ARTERIES , 1926, The Journal of general physiology.

[11]  Jon J. Camp,et al.  A Workstation for Interactive Display and Quantitative Analysis of 3-D and 4-D Biomedical Images , 1986 .

[12]  A. Roy,et al.  A generalization of the optimal models of arterial branching. , 1982, Bulletin of mathematical biology.

[13]  B Dawant,et al.  Effect of dispersion of vessel diameters and lengths in stochastic networks. I. Modeling of microcirculatory flow. , 1986, Microvascular research.

[14]  M Zamir,et al.  Local geometry of arterial branching. , 1982, Bulletin of mathematical biology.

[15]  M Zamir,et al.  The role of shear forces in arterial branching , 1976, The Journal of general physiology.

[16]  B. Flannery,et al.  Three-Dimensional X-ray Microtomography , 1987, Science.