The structural and functional pathology of microcirculation is the crucial mechanism of the development of various types of diseases especially sepsis and other types of distributive shock. Intensive progression in microcirculatory research including pathophysiological relationships and a unique opportunity to visualize microcirculation at the bedside produced a lot of new results, but their comparability and exact interpretation are extremely difficult due to incomparable methods in the recent clinical studies. Several key points for image acquisition and analysis were identified: 3–5 sites per organ, elimination of pressure-induced artefacts, appropriate focusing, contrast and resolution settings and uniform quantitative description of the microcirculatory status using the perfused vessel density (PVD) and the microcirculatory flow index (MFI). The influence of some chronic coexisting diseases on the function and structure of microcirculation is under intense investigation. New aspects of incoming clinical microcirculatory research are discussed in this short review.

        Key words: microcirculation