ABSTRACT
The analysis of events that occur in the microcirculation began with the development of the microscope and was circumscribed to primarily descriptive approaches that focused on morphological features and the observation of events in the flowing blood. As history reveals, advances in our understanding of the structure and function of the microcirculation are a direct consequence of the development of quantitative techniques for the measurement of microvascular parameters mostly encoded in and generated by the intravital microscope. The images of the microcirculation often have a complex background, and lack contrast and resolution, complicating the process of quantifying dimensions and dynamic events visualized through the optical microscope. Diameter measuring techniques are mostly based on the conversion of the microscope optical image into a video signal where the necessary information can be obtained by image shearing and the use of electronic calipers.
