Microvascular characteristics of the human filiform papillae: a videocapillaroscopic study

The aim of this study was to observe the microcirculation characteristics of the human filiform papillae in healthy patients in vivo. Twenty healthy patients were examined using lingual capillaroscopy to investigate the characteristics of microcirculation of the human filiform papillae. Visibility, course, tortuosity, as well as the possible presence of microhemorrhages, the average caliber of the capillary loops and the number of visible capillary loops per square millimeter were evaluated for each patient. The investigation was simple, non-invasive and repeatable for each patient. Microcirculation architecture was characterized by a network of capillaries in polygonal mesh with parallel orientation in regard to the surface. Rare microhemorrhages were observed. The caliber of visible capillary loops was 12.50 +/- 1.46 microm (mean +/- SD). The number of visible capillaries was 9.88 +/- 1.06 (mean +/- SD). Our study shows that capillaroscopy of lingual filiform papillae is a practicable method. Future studies might evaluate whether microcirculation in that area is compromised or not during systemic pathologies involving peripheral microcirculation alterations. This method could also be applied to the study of microcirculation in pathologies which strictly pertain to the dental stomatological field.