Noninvasive in vivo assessment of the skeletal muscle and small intestine serous surface microcirculation in rat: sidestream dark-field (SDF) imaging

Abstract

The pathophysiology of microcirculation is intensively investigated to understand disease development at the microscopic level. The goal of this experimental study was to describe basic microcirculatory parameters of skeletal muscle and ileal serous surface microcirculation in the rat using SDF imaging and to standardize the technical aspects of the protocol.The mean FCD obtained from the surface of skeletal muscle and ileal serous surface was 219 (213-225 cm/cm2) and 290 (282-298 cm/cm2) respectively.

There was no statistically significant difference in mean values of FCD obtained from the muscle (P = 0.273) in contrast to ileal serous surface where the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.036). Neither on the muscle surface (P = 0.739) nor on ileal serous surface (P = 0.659) statistically significant differences in small vessels percentage was detected.

Our study has shown that SDF imaging represents promising technology for experimental and clinical studies.