FRACTAL DIMENSION: A NEW METHOD TO QUANTIFY INTESTINAL HEALING IN DIABETES

Erika Veruska Paiva Ortolan*, Carlos Antônio Caramori, Pedro Luiz Toledo de Arruda Lourenção, Simone Antunes Terra, Marcos Curcio Angelini and César Tadeu Spadella

ABSTRACT

Purpose: to investigate if experimental alloxanic diabetes could cause quantitative changes in intestinal anastomoses of the terminal ileum and distal colon in rats, as compared to controls, measured by fractal dimension. Method: 96 male Wistar rats weighing ±300 g were split into four groups, and were submitted to ileum and colon anastomoses after a 3 month pre op period of follow up: G1- control group with ileum anastomoses, G2- control group with colon anastomoses, G3-diabetic group with ileum anastomose and G4- diabetic group with colon anastomoses. After a three month post-op period, the animals were sacrificed on days 4, 14, 21 and 30, and fragments of the anastomoses were removed, and analyzed in the scanning electron microscope and the images obtained were used to calculate the fractal dimension of the anastomosis. Results: Ultrastructural analysis of the anastomoses revealed fewer wide collagen fibers that were narrower and disarranged, as compares to the control animals in all of the moments. The results of fractal dimension showed a tendency to higher complexity of the anastomosis in the diabetic animals, as compared to controls. Conclusion: experimental diabetes caused qualitative changes in scar tissue, seen at alterations in the structural arrangement of collagen fibers and a tendency to more complexity in fractal dimension.

Keywords: alloxan Diabetes, wound healing, surgical anastomosis, fractals.