Spatial Arrangement of Vasa Vasorum of the Human Great Saphenous Vein: Scanning Electron Microscopy and 3D-Morphometry of Vascular Corrosion Casts
Abstract
Recently, the spatial arrangement of vasa vasorum has been studied in arteries using micro-computer tomography or scanning electron microscopy of vascular corrosion casts. As scanning electron microscopy of microvascular corrosion casts allows to gain reliable data on the hierarchy of vessels, their exact branching patterns and branching angles, as well as the relationship between parent and daughter vessels in arterial branchings, respectively venous mergings, we recently combined this technique with 3D-morphometry and analyzed for the first time the 3D-arrangement of vasa vasorum of the human great saphenous vein.
Here we extend our work and ask which of the four optimality principles underlie the design of arterial and venous vasa vasorum bifurcations of the human GSV