Dynamic circulation as well as hemostasis is essential for life. An abnormal extension of hemostasis is vascular thrombosis. Whereas surgery may be quite effective in removal of emboli and thrombi from major arteries, it cannot remove a clot from small vessels. In the final analysis, these vessels will be critical to the maintenance of the circulation. It is the circulation in vessels this size which we have studied.
In order that we might better understand and discuss microvascular thrombosis, we have photographed the formation and dissolution of these clots by cinephotomicrography. A record is thereby available for repeated study. Three basic types of thrombotic aggregates have been observed, namely, the platelet aggregate, the whole blood clot, and the white cell aggregate.
Materials and Methods
A 16 mm camera is used to photograph the circulation in one- to ten-red-cell diameter blood vessels. The small bowel mesentery of the rabbit is transilluminated