The phyllotaxis of the aortic valve

Published: September 10, 2019
Abstract Views: 1101
PDF: 734
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Biological systems ubiquitously and inevitably exhibit stochasticity in traits from the molecular level to the multicellular and morphological level. However, there are several examples of natural events that might be described in mathematical terms. Plants grow in a structured and geometric way to maximize their sun exposure for photosynthesis while reducing the stress. The ‘Fibonacci sequence’ and its ‘golden ratio’ are considered a mathematical regularity and model that is one of the corner-stone of the ‘phyllotaxis’, the part of the botany that studies how plants branch. Nevertheless, we currently do not know if such mathematical model can be applied to humans. Different authors have hypothesized that ‘fractal’ might be identified along with the ‘golden-ratio’ in the human body (coronary artery, heart valves etc.). The aortic valve and the aortic root might represent an interesting model of human fractal geometry, where the phyllotactic rules can be reasonably applied, and where deviation from normality might results in dysfunction. However, in the absence of scientific validations, such report represents only the authors’ perceptions of a beautiful shape.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Moscarelli, Marco, and Ruggero De Paulis. 2019. “The Phyllotaxis of the Aortic Valve”. Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease 89 (3). https://doi.org/10.4081/monaldi.2019.1139.

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.