Improvement of optical setup for microcirculation imaging and flow analysis in septic shock rats

摘要

Microcirculation plays an important role in maintaining our lives. Observing the microcirculation has been consideredimportant in understanding the disease mechanisms and diagnosing diseases. Sidestream dark-field (SDF) imaging is oneof the methods to observe the microcirculation. However, the SDF imaging has several problems for instance artifactscaused by pressure and heat. Measurement points is under pressure because SDF imaging requires direct contact withmeasurement points, which may affect hemodynamics. Therefore, we construct a non-contact setup. Furthermore, at theearly stage of sepsis, it is known that the microcirculation is impaired. To investigate the relationship between the flowof red blood cells (RBCs) and septic shock, we conducted an experiment using the setup to observe septic model rats andsham rats. Moreover, we calculated the blood velocity to estimate the flow of RBCs by using acquired motion pictures.We confirmed that the sham rats showed slight change in lactate value during the observation and improved the bloodvelocity compared with just after abdominal closure. However, lactate value of the septic model rats increased and theblood velocity of septic model rats decreased. This finding suggests that microcirculatory alteration may be a sign ofsepsis and septic shock progression.