Microcirculation of the skin with essential arterial hypertension

Abstract

The review describes the skin microcirculation disorders with essential arterial hypertension by the capillaroscopy and laser Doppler flowmetry. The methods are complementary to each other and provide information about the structural and functional state of arteriolar, capillary and venular vessels in the microvasculature. The most common disorders in the skin microvasculature attending the arterial hypertension are vasomotor dysfunction of the microvascular endothelium, a decreasing of the dilator reserve, and capillary rarefaction. The bulk information was obtained in non-acral areas of the skin, where the tissue perfusion is has mainly nutritional pattern. The blood flow pattern in of the skin acral areas, where the sympathetic adrenergic system of regulation dominates, is still unexplored, and tissue perfusion is characterized by a thermoregulatory shunt orientation.