Fractal Analysis of Vascular Network Pattern in Human Diseases

The lower gengival and vestibular oral mucosa was photographed and analyzed to determine the complexity of the vascular network. Patients with HNPCC, newborns with true umbilical cord knots, patients with a history of IHPS, patioents with MCTD and age-a and sex-matched controls were enrolled in the study. The fractal dimensions for two regions of different box lengths ( < 740 µm and < 140 µm), the fractal dimension of the minimum path (Dmin) and the relative Lempel-Ziv complexity were calculated. The findings of this study indicate the presence of an increased vascular network complexity of the patients’ oral mucosa, giving us previously unrecognized phenotypical markers for these diseases. The increased oral vascular complexity observed may be linked to a a systemic abnormality of the extracellular matrix.