Histomorphometric investigations of the human heart microvasculature in coronary disease
Zieliński, K.W.; Kulig, A.
Polish Journal of Pathology Official Journal of the Polish Society of Pathologists 45(1): 17-28
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 1233-9687 PMID: 8177616 Document Number: 438801
Comparative results of morphometric investigations describing the microvasculature of the human left ventricle heart wall muscle have been presented. The control group consisted of 11 autopsied cases of the atherosclerotically non damaged hearts and the second group consisted of 13 autopsied cases of the hearts with double or triple vessel chronic coronary atherosclerosis. The age of subjects ranged from 47 to 85 (median 65). The study was carried out on microscopical slides using digital image analyser. In the control group a significantly lower number and profile area of capillaries was noticed in the subendocardial zone than in the remaining ones. The differences between control and atherosclerotic hearts were most prominent in the subendocardial zone, although they were observed in the subepicardial and intramyocardial zones as well. If the value of each parameter in the subendocardial zone of the control hearts will be fixed equally to 100%, the corresponding values in atherosclerotic group are: the number of capillaries--34%, total area of capillaries--65%, number of collaterals--170%, total area of collaterals--612%, muscle fibre/capillary ratio--137%, the degree of microvasculature anisotropy--164%. On the ground of this study as well as on the qualitative investigations it is postulated that the chronic atherosclerosis of extra-myocardial coronary arteries corresponds to intramyocardial rebuilding of the capillary network worsen the conditions of muscle fibre nutrition.