Simultaneous estimation of arteriolar, capillary, and shunt blood flow of the gut mucosa.

Microspheres of 15 and 9 microns diameter were injected simultaneously into the left ventricle of the dog, and the entrapment of these microspheres in different layers of the gut wall was measured under resting conditions, vasoconstriction, and subsequent vasodilation. Results show that some of the 9-microns spheres passed into the portal blood through all layers of the gut wall, whereas 15-microns spheres were completely entrapped in the tissue. The pattern of entrapment of 15-microns spheres during vasoconstriction and during subsequent vasodilation suggests that these microspheres measure adequately the arteriolar inflow of the muscularis, submucosa, and mucosa (i.e., villus plus crypt) but, due to series arrangement between the arterioles of the villus and the crypt, cannot measure the arteriolar flow of the villus and crypt separately. The entrapment of 9-microns microspheres in the muscularis, submucosa, crypt, and villus that occurred during vasoconstriction did not change during subsequent vasodilation. This suggests that these microspheres became lodged in the precapillary sphincter or capillary and therefore measured the capillary flow of these layers. Accordingly, the difference between the arteriolar (measured by 15 microns) and the capillary (measured by 9 microns) flow of the muscularis, submucosa, and mucosa may provide an estimate of the noncapillary (shunt) flow of these layers.