Capillary Microscopy

Raynaud's phenomenon

What is Capillary Microscopy?

Capillary microscopy is a noninvasive technique for measuring red blood cell velocity and for determining nutritional blood flow in the capillaries of the skin.

This method can be applied in distinguishing patients with Raynaud's phenomenon (see Photo) from those with other disorders involving ischemia of the hand. Raynaud's phenomenon represents the most frequent clinical aspect of cardio/microvascular involvement and is a key feature of several autoimmune rheumatic diseases as Scleroderma and Dermatomyositis.