Laser speckle contrast imaging for assessment of abdominal visceral microcirculation in acute peritonitis: does sequential impairments exist?

Objective: It is believed that the microcirculation of multiple organs is impaired during acute peritonitis, however whether distinct susceptibilities of visceral microvasculature exist is still unknown. The present study aims to verify whether the microcirculatory alterations occur sequentially among multiple abdominal viscera during acute peritonitis. Materials and methods: Acute peritonitis was achieved on 29 Sprague-Dawley rats through colon ascendens stent peritonitis (CASP) model. With laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI), the microcirculation of the liver, ileum and renal cortex was monitored in each rat at baseline before CASP sepsis and continued monitoring at 4 h, 8 h, or 12 h after the surgery. Another 9 rats served for sham operation. One-way analysis of variance with a post hoc Dunnett's test was used for analysis. Results: The ileum microcirculation was impaired earliest from 342.1 +/- 61.0 laser speckle perfusion unit (LSPU) at baseline to 271.7 +/- 74.0 LSPU at 4 h (P < 0.05), while the decline of renal microcirculation was not obvious until 8 h after peritonitis (289.1 +/- 111.2 vs 3762 +/- 53.4, P < 0.05). However hepatic microcirculation was not significantly changed during 12 h of observation period. Conclusion: The microcirculation of various viscera has shown distinct susceptibilities to acute peritonitis: the ileum is more susceptible than the kidney, while the hepatic microcirculation seems to be the most resistant to peritonitis. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.