Glycocalyx in vivo measurement

Issue title: Selected papers of the 36th Conference of the German Society for Clinical Microcirculation and Hemorheology, 5–8. June, 2017, Greifswald, Germany - New developments in clinical microcirculation imaging

Guest editors: M. Jünger, A. Krüger-Genge and F. Jung

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Cerny, Vladimir^{a; b; c; d} | Astapenko, David^{b; c} | Burkovskiy, Ian^{d; g} | Hyspler, Radomir^b | Ticha, Alena^b | Trevors, Mary Ann^e | Lehmann, Christian^{d; f; g; h; *}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Anaesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine and Intensive Care, J.E. Purkinje University, Masaryk Hospital, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic | [b] Centrum for Research and Development, University Hospital Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic | [c] Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic | [d] Department of Anaesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada | [e] Electron microscopy unit – core facility, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada | [f] Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada | [g] Department of Pharmacology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada | [h] Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Christian Lehmann, MD, PhD, FRCPC, Department of Anesthesia, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, QE II Health Sciences Centre, 10 West Victoria, 1276 South Park St., Halifax, NS, B3H 2Y9, Canada. E-mail: chlehmann@me.com.

Abstract: The endothelial glycocalyx (EG) lining the endoluminal surface of the capillaries has been proposed as a key component of the microcirculation and a major player in microvascular pathology. Recent advances in the understanding of its physiological role and clinical significance have been made upon the development of methods allowing EG assessment in clinical medicine. Laboratory methods can assess the amount of EG damage by measuring levels of its degradation products (e.g. syndecan-1, heparan sulphate and hyaluronan sulphate), mostly in the plasma, however, their physiological turnover disqualifies them from being the reliable index of EG damage. At the bedside, in vivo video microscopy tools technologies (e.g. Side-stream Dark Field imaging technology) allow indirect assessment of EG thickness in sublingual microcirculation by measuring the penetration extent (called Perfused Boundary Region) of flowing red blood cells into the EG.

Keywords: Endothelial glycocalyx, laboratory methods, videomicroscopy, Perfused Boundary Region

DOI: 10.3233/CH-179235

Journal: Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, vol. 67, no. 3-4, pp. 499-503, 2017