Issn Print: 0265-0215

Publication Date: 2010/06/12


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Age related changes in the microcirculation… does it really matter?: 4AP3–7

Saleh I. Abdo; Z. Turek; V. Cerny

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Background and Goal of Study: Even though Europe's population is aging with a fast pace, yet microcirculatory changes in the elderly had not been to our current time studied.The goal of our study was to demonstrate the changes in the microcirculatory network during the physiological process of aging. We hypothesized that the basic microcirculatory parameters functional capillary density (FCD )and microcirculatory flow index (MFI) decrease in a linear fashion as age increases, when comparing young and old healthy subjects.
Materials and Methods: Data were collected from 3O healthy subjects regardless of their sex.Group A (n=10) included subjects between the age of 20–40, Group B(n=10) between 50–70 and Group C (n=10) between 80–95. All subjects were healthy and of good physical condition, with the elderly capable of performing daily activities on their own,were of good mental health, with no history of dementia, psychosis or behavioral disturbances. Further all the healthy subjects were non-smokers, did not suffer from any diseases or take any drugs that could have an effect on the microcirculatory network,and had normal values of hematocrit.The sub lingual microcirculation was visualized using side stream dark-field (SDF) imaging. The SDF images were recorded from 3 different areas per subject. MFI and FCD in small (<25 ìm in diameter) and medium (25–50 ìm) vessels were analyzed off-line.
Results and Discussion: Clear high contrast images were successfully obtained in all groups.There were statistically significant differences between the age groups. Statistically significant decrease both in FCD and MFI was observed in group C when compared to groups A and B.Results are summarized in Table 1. There was a decrease in FCD by 22% and in MFI by 17% between the oldest subjects in group C and the youngest subjects in group A.
Conclusion(s): Our study confirmed that the basic microcirculatory parameters such as FCD and MFI decrease as age increases, with the higher percent of changes occurring after the age of 70 years.Age should be taken as an important factor in microcirculatory studies and clinical trails focusing on the human circulation.
Acknowledgements: Supported by Research project MZO 00179906.
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