On criteria determining the extension of microvascular beds with particular reference to cerebral cortex

Proceeding from the results of work in the field of microcirculation, the author proposes two criteria to determine the limits of microvascular beds. The first is the functional behavior of the arterial branching sequence under natural conditions, and the other is the specific red cell behavior inside the transient arterial and venous branchings. Proceeding from these criteria the limits of the microvascular bed for the rabbit cerebral cortex were found to be at the arterial branches of approximately 100 microns in diameter. But, it is still unknown whether this is a common regularity for all regions of the body.