The relationship between macro- and microcirculation clinical aspects.

Abstract

A large number of methods are today available for the clinical evaluation of the arterial blood supply to an extremity or part of an extremity. However, these methods are not sensitive enough for determining the nutritional status of a tissue in the extremity affected by vascular disorders. This is especially true for the skin where most of the blood is used for thermoregulation and only a small fraction goes through the nutritional capillaries. Blood may enter the subpapillary vascular network through AV-shunts and bypass the nutritional skin capillaries. Therefore microcirculatory methods has to be used in order to be able to evaluate the nutritional status of a certain skin area. One of the clinically most useful methods for this purpose is vital capillary microscopy. By classifying structural changes of the nutritional capillaries in an area susceptible to ischemia, the risk of necrosis can be evaluated. Marked discrepancies between the total circulation of the are and the nutritional status of the tissue can be seen especially in patients with peripheral vascular disorders and/or diabetes. The total circulation may be markedly reduced but necrosis does not occur until the nutritional circulation of the ischemic skin area is completely abolished for a certain period of time. On the other hand it is sometimes seen in clinical practise that ischemic skin necrosis may develop in a region with rather good macrocirculation. These findings are of utmost importance when the effect of a certain treatment should be evaluated. The effect has to be studied directly in the target organ, and that is the nutritional vascular bed of the ischemic area.