Variability in sublingual microvessel density and flow measurements in healthy volunteers.

Objectives: As sublingual microvascular indices are increasingly heralded as new resuscitation end-points, better population data are required to power clinical studies. This paper describes improved methods to quantify sublingual microvessel flow and density in images obtained by sidestream dark field (SDF) technology in healthy volunteers, including vessels under 10 microm in diameter.

Materials And Methods: Measurements of sublingual capillary density and flow were obtained by recording three 15-second images in 20 healthy volunteers over three days.