Cardiovascular Allometry: Analysis, Methodology, and Clinical Applications.

ABSTRACT

The classic works of "On Growth and Form" and "The Problem of Relative Growth" that began a century ago have so fittingly, albeit unintentionally, become pertinent to the modern-day clinical treatment strategy of the many patients with cardiovascular disease. This chapter uses allometry, which was established for comparative biology, to explore physiological and pathological differences due to differential growth, which may lead to differing diagnostic and treatment approaches for male versus female patients. Men and women have obvious differences in body and heart weights, as well as different geometries and structures of their blood vessels; the analysis in this chapter extends to their hemodynamic functional differences. This includes dimensional analysis to establish criteria for characterizing functions based on allometric formulations. The clinical applications of sex differences are analyzed for arterial stenosis, aneurysm, atherosclerosis, hypertension, and coronary revascularization. Allometric approaches are applied specifically to isolated cases of systolic hypertension to delineate the intermingled relations of aging and sex differences. This chapter aims to provide some preliminary insights into the usefulness of cardiovascular allometry. Its future impact on clinical diagnosis remains largely unexplored.