Measurements of microvascular perfusion in healthy anesthetized dogs using orthogonal polarization spectral imaging.

OBJECTIVE

To determine normal microvascular assessment parameters for healthy, anesthetized dogs.

DESIGN

Prospective investigational descriptive study.

SETTING

University Teaching Hospital.

ANIMALS

Fifteen client-owned, systemically healthy dogs that were undergoing general anesthesia for an elective procedure.

INTERVENTIONS

A sidestream dark-field videomicroscope probe was placed in the mouth at the mucogingival junction above the canine tooth and 3 video recordings of the microcirculation were made for later analysis by 2 independent, blinded reviewers.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

The videos were analyzed to determine the total vessel density, proportion of perfused vessels, microcirculatory flow index, and perfused vessel density. A range of values for these indices were obtained and reported.

CONCLUSIONS

The microcirculation of normal dogs is readily observable using the videomicroscope and recorded video segments can be used to determine microcirculatory measurements. These values may prove useful for comparison in future studies that examine canine microcirculatory parameters.