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Endocardial coronary microcirculation of the beating heart
1Department of Medical Engineering and Systems Cardiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashiki, Japan.
Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
|January 1, 1993
Abstract:
Direct and continuous observation of subendocardial (deep myocardial) microcirculation provides essential information on coronary circulation, since cardiac contraction affects subendocardial vessels most vigorously. To achieve this aim, we developed a portable needle-probe video-microscope with a charge-coupled-device (CCD) camera to visualize the subendocardial microcirculation. Images of the subendocardial microcirculation of a porcine beating heart were successfully observed in all cases. The vascular compression by cardiac contraction decreased the diameter of subendocardial arterioles and venules by about 20%.