Is fractal geometry useful in medicine and biomedical sciences?

Fractal geometry has become very useful in the understanding of many phenom ena in various fields such as astrophysics, economy or agriculture and rece ntly in medicine. After a brief intuitive introduction to the basis of frac tal geometry, the clue is made about the correlation between Df and the com plexity or the irregularity of a structure. However, fractal analysis must be applied with certain caution in natural objects such as bio-medical ones . The cardio-vascular system remains one of the most important fields of ap plication of these kinds of approach. Spectral analysis of the R-R interval , morphology of the distal coronary arteries constitute two examples. Other very interesting applications are founded in bacteriology, medical imaging or ophthalmology. In our institution, we apply fractal analysis in order t o quantitate angiogenesis and other vascular processes. (C) 2000 Harcourt P ublishers Ltd.