Hideo Shimizu, Takeshi Fujii and Takeshi Yokoyama
Department of Pathology, Jichi Medical School, Yakushiji, Minamikawachi-Machi, Tochigi 329-04, Japan
(Received July 19, 1989; Accepted August 25, 1989)
Keywords: Fractal Dimension, Spatial Structure, Vascular Network, Human Liver
Abstract. The spatial structure of the human liver vascular network, which consists of irregularly anastomosing minute vessels in three-dimensional space and is thus called "sinusoid", is shown to have a fractal nature through direct analysis of serial tissue sections using a computer system. The fractal dimension of the structure is found to be 2.18±0.03. This quantity is considered to be another useful parameter for estimating complex spatial structures of anastomosing vasculature.