Morphological characterisation of the coronary arteries in African sheep (Ovis orientalis). Differential analysis with those of humans and other animal species

Background: Despite the importance of the coronary system in the African sheep as a possible experimental model, there is little information about this particular vascular system. The objective of this investigation was to characterise morpho-logically the coronary arteries and their branches in African sheep. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study evaluated the coronary arteries and their branches of 62 hearts of short hair sheep. The right and left coronary ostia were perfused with a semi-synthetic resin (Palatal GP40L 85%; styrene 15%) dyed with mineral red. The morphological characteristics were evaluated using a digital calibrator and the biometrics of the coronary arteries and their branches were registered. Results: The right coronary artery had a proximal calibre of 2.11 ± 0.46 mm. The subsinusal interventricular branch ended at the middle third of the homonym sulcus in 19 (30.6%) specimens. The left coronary artery had a diameter of 5.38 ± ± 1.59 mm and a length of 4.67 ± 3.32 mm. This artery bifurcated itself in the paraconal interventricular branch and the left circumflex branch in 57 (91.9%) hearts and trifurcated with an additional left diagonal branch in 5 (8.1%) spec-imens. Left coronary artery dominance was observed in 51 (82.3%) specimens, whereas in 11 (17.7%) cases the coronary circulation dominance was balanced. Conclusions: Due to the similitude in the features of the coronary arteries between African sheep and humans, this animal model can be proposed for procedural and haemodynamic activities. Copyright © 2019 Via Medica.

• Autores: Gómez F.A.; Cortes Machado, Luz Stella; Ballesteros L.E.
• Tipo de recurso: Article of journal
• Fecha de publicación: 2019
• Institución: Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia
• Repositorio: Repositorio UCC
• OAI Identifier: oai:repository.ucc.edu.co:20.500.12494/41317
• Acceso en línea: https://doi.org/10.5603/FM.a2018.0054; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12494/41317
• Palabra clave: Coronary artery disease; Dominance; Heart; Sheep
• Rights: closedAccess
• License: http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_14cb