Exchange transfusion therapy and its effects on real-time microcirculation in pediatric sickle cell anemia patients: an intravital microscopy study.

Periodic blood exchange transfusion is a treatment modality commonly used to manage pediatric sickle cell anemia at the University of California Davis Medical Center. The goal of exchange transfusion therapy is to ameliorate vasoocclusion and improve tissue perfusion by removing sickled red blood cells and introducing normal red blood cells. Using computer-assisted intravital microscopy, pretransfusion and posttransfusion microvascular characteristics were analyzed.

Correlation of conjunctival microangiopathy with retinopathy in type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients.

We hypothesized that T2DM vasculopathy can be revealed and quantified in the bulbar conjunctiva prior to its pathologic presentation in the retina. Using computer-assisted intravital microscopy (CAIM), an objective, non-invasive approach can provide a viable complement to retinal fundus photography to possibly screen patients for early signs of real-time, in vivo T2DM vasculopathy. Fundus photography was utilized to determine the retinopathy level (RL) in T2DM patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and control subjects.