Capillaroscopy in pregnancy

Abstract

Introduction: In pregnancy, the circulatory system undergoes profound adaptation to meet the requirements in blood supply for the mother and the foetus. With the development of new techniques, research of the microcirculatory changes becomes available. This expert review gives an overview of the current evidence in the field of capillaroscopy. The aim of this review is to summarize the available techniques in the assessment of the microcirculation during pregnancy.Areas covered: A literature search was done, using the strategy: (microcirculation OR capillary OR capillaries OR capillaroscopy) AND pregnancy AND (density OR diameter OR count OR number). All articles were screened and all English articles were considered, when containing information regarding imaging of capillaries. Only structural parameters were considered, functional parameters (e.g. flow velocity) were not considered. Reference search was undertaken after reading full text articles. Articles from reference search underwent same selection criteria as in the primary search.Expert commentary: With growing insight in microcirculatory changes in hypertensive pregnancy conditions, the field of capillaroscopy will become more important in future. The technique is feasible and easy to use in clinical practice as well as in research setting. The first step, necessary to perform further research in this field in future, is to get consensus in technique to perform capillaroscopy and in methods to quantitatively and qualitatively describe the observed changes in microvasculature.