Figure 2.

Effects of fluid overload on microvascular blood flow.

Inadequate fluid overload conducts to progressive decrease in functional capillary density in cases of homogeneous (A1, B1, C1) or heterogeneous (A2, B2, C2) microcirculatory blood flow. Progressive increase in distance between capillaries impairs oxygen diffusive capacities to tissues despite apparently normal convective flow (A1, B1, C1) or in cases of apparent corrected convective component with persistence of increased heterogeneity (B2, C2). TA1 depicts the original tissue area. TA2 depicts the increased tissue area due to edema. Black arrows pointing down represent the magnitude of blood flow.