An X-ray Microscopic Study of the Vasa Vasorum of Normal Human Pulmonary Arteries

The first description of the distribution of the bronchial arteries in injected specimens is attributed to Ruysch in 1721(von Hayek, 1960).Robertson (1929), while injecting the vasa vasorum in the ascending aorta of dogs and lambs with coloured cellulose, described, withoutillustration, an anastomosis between the bronchial and coronary arteries through the vasa of the pulmonary trunk, thus confirming the observations of Cruveilhier (1842) and Gross (1921).In their monographs on the lung, Miller (1947) and von Hayek (1960) state, without further amplification, that the vasa vasorum to the pul- monary arteries arise from the bronchial arteries.Studies on human cadaveric and necropsy pulmonary arteries, using routine histological and injection techniques, led Tobin (1960) to conclude that the mural vessels were confined to the outer third of the media, that the vasa on the pulmonary veins were richer, and that venous vasa drained into the lumen of the pulmonary vein.This work is concerned with a study of the vasa vasorum of human pulmonary arteries, using the Coslett Nixon x-ray projection microscope.