• Muhammad Y Sheikh, Usman Javed, Jasjit Singh, Jayanta Choudhury, Omer Deen, Kulraj Dhah, and Michael W Peterson.
• Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of California San Francisco-Fresno Medical Education Program, Community Regional Medical Center, 2823 Fresno Street, 1st Floor, Endoscopy Suite, Fresno, CA 93721, USA. msheikh@fresno.ucsf.edu
• Dig. Dis. Sci. 2009 Dec 1;54(12):2706-11.

AbstractBacterial infections are common in cirrhosis and can lead to life-threatening complications. Sidestream dark-field (SDF) imaging has recently emerged as a noninvasive tool for capturing real-time video images of sublingual microcirculation in critically ill patients with sepsis. The objective of this study was to assess the utility of SDF in determining underlying infection in patients with cirrhosis. Sublingual microcirculation was compared among patients with compensated cirrhosis (Group A, n=13), cirrhosis without sepsis (Group B, n=18), cirrhosis with sepsis (Group C, n=14), and sepsis only (Group D, n=10). The blood flow was semi-quantitatively evaluated in four equal quadrants in small (10-25 mm); medium (26-50 mm); and large (51-100 mm) sublingual capillaries. The blood flow was described as no flow (0), intermittent flow (1), sluggish flow (2), and continuous flow (3). The overall flow score or microvascular flow index (MFI) was measured for quantitative assessment of microcirculation and predicting power for concurrent infection in cirrhosis. Marked impairment was observed at all levels of microvasculature in Groups B and C when compared with Group A. This effect was restricted to small vessels only when Group B was compared with Group C. MFI<1.5 was found to have highest sensitivity (100%) and specificity (100%) for infection in decompensated cirrhosis. SDF imaging of sublingual microcirculation can be a useful bedside diagnostic tool to assess bacterial infection in cirrhosis.© The Author(s) 2008. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

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