Morphometry of the dog pulmonary venous tree

Abstract

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.