[Laboratory for exploration of small vessels: its utility in vascular diseases]

Small vessel investigative laboratories for the in vivo study of the human microcirculation are few. Everyone believes that the combination of clinical examination. Doppler scanning and radiology ensures thorough investigation of peripheral vascular diseases. Capillaroscopy, plethysmography, oximetry, thermography, laser-Doppler, volumetry, and measurement of ambulatory venous pressure are rarely used for these diseases in routine practice, because they are often considered expensive, time consuming, inaccurate and eventually without practical consequences for patients. The aim of the present study is to summarize the 20-year-experience of such a small vessel laboratory, and to demonstrate its usefulness, both in research and in the routine practice of Vascular Medicine. Raynaud's phenomenon, critical ischemia, and chronic venous insufficiency will serve as examples for this demonstration.