ANALYSIS OF PIGS CORONARY ARTERIAL BLOOD-FLOW WITH DETAILED ANATOMICAL DATA

Blood flow to perfuse the muscle cells of the heart is distributed by the capillary blood vessels via the coronary arterial tree. Because th e branching pattern and vascular geometry of the coronary vessels in t he ventricles and atria are nonuniform, the flow in all of the coronar y capillary blood vessels is not the same. This nonuniformity of perfu sion has obvious physiological meaning, and must depend on the anatomy and branching pattern of the arterial tree. In this study, the statis tical distribution of blood pressure, blood flow, and blood volume in all branches of the coronary arterial tree is determined based on the anatomical branching pattern of the coronary arterial tree and the sta tistical data on the lengths and diameters of the blood vessels. Spati al nonuniformity of the now field is represented by dispersions of var ious quantities (SD/mean) that are determined as functions of the orde r numbers of the blood vessels. In the determination, we used a new, c omplete set of statistical data on the branching pattern and vascular geometry of the coronary arterial trees. We wrote hemodynamic equation s for flow in every vessel and every node of a circuit, and solved the m numerically. The results of two circuits are compared: one asymmetri c model satisfies all anatomical data (including the mean connectivity matrix) and the other, a symmetric model, satisfies all mean anatomic al data except the connectivity matrix. It was found that the mean lon gitudinal pressure drop profile as functions of the vessel order numbe rs are similar in both models, but the asymmetric model yields interes ting dispersion profiles of Mood pressure and blood flow. Mathematical modeling of the anatomy and hemodynamics is illustrated with discussi ons on its accuracy.