Intravital Microcirculation Imaging (eBook)

This is a rare book. Not because it will be difficult to find, but because its subject is seldom treated – and even neglected – in medical literature. And, this is not because microcirculation is difficult to research or because it is inaccessible, but because we have – in spite of abundant data – little understanding of how it is regulated, how it behaves in pathological conditions, and how we can control it therapeutically. Indeed, it is difficult to overestimate its importance. Life depends on an uninterrupted traffic of “supplies” to the individual cells, the evacuation of their waste products, as well as substances transmitting messages to and communicating with other distant organs or cells – microcirculation. I tend to think of microcirculation as a network of larger and smaller streets, passageways – at times, hardly passable footpaths – connecting larger avenues in a major metropolis. If these multitudes of intersections become jammed, collateral routes are taken. If this should also fail, the city’s inhabitants would suffer, an entire district may be deprived of important supplies and communication, or the entire city could even die. This book expounds on the methods of exploration and our current understanding of that complex – but so essential – component of an evolutionarily advanced living organism with a fully developed circulatory system. Microcirculation signifies life. It assures that human beings can survive even up on Mount Everest, break the 100 meters’ world record in swimming or sprinting. It signifies survival or – if insufficient – death, by sepsis, for example. Microcirculation signifies continuing to live or, if disturbed, stopping movement, breathing, thinking and even life itself.