Publication: Intraspecific scaling of arterial blood pressure in the Burmese python
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Date
Advisor
Coadvisor
Graduate program
Undergraduate course
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Company of Biologists Ltd
Type
Article
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Acesso restrito
Abstract
Interspecific allometric analyses indicate that mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) increases with body mass of snakes and mammals. In snakes, MAP increases in proportion to the increased distance between the heart and the head, when the heart-head vertical distance is expressed rho gh (where rho is the density of blood, g is acceleration due to gravity and h is the vertical distance above the heart), and the rise in MAP is associated with a larger heart to normalize wall stress in the ventricular wall. Based on measurements of MAP in Burmese pythons ranging from 0.9 to 3.7 m in length (0.20-27 kg), we demonstrate that although MAP increases with body mass, the rise in MAP is merely half of that predicted by heart-head distance. Scaling relationships within individual species, therefore, may not be accurately predicted by existing interspecific analyses.
Description
Keywords
Allometry, Scaling, Cardiovascular, Blood pressure, Snake, Gravity
Language
English
Citation
Journal Of Experimental Biology. Cambridge: Company Of Biologists Ltd, v. 217, n. 13, p. 2232-2234, 2014.
