Continuum analysis of common branching patterns in the human arch of the aorta.

A model is proposed for describing common variations in the arrangement of branches on the arch of the human aorta, and the model is used to analyze data from 123 human arches. The analysis allows the observed variations to fall freely along a continuous spectrum, rather than be confined to discrete categories as is commonly done at present. The results thus describe these variations in a more natural way and throw some new light on their likely source.