CLINICAL METHOD FOR MEASURING CAPILLARY BLOOD PRESSURE AND ITS APPLICATION IN HYPERTENSION

Abstract

A PRACTICAL reliable method for the measurement of capillary pressure in man could prove to be an important tool in the elucidation of certain problems of disease as well as in facilitating physiological and pharmacological studies. Methods have been available for the determination of capillary pressure in man, but in their present form they are unsatisfactory. Danzer and Hooker,¹ in 1920, described their method, in which nailbed capillaries were observed microscopically, the blood flow within them was watched, the flow obliterated by applying direct external pressure, and the pressure gradually reduced until normal capillary flow reappeared. The pressure at which this occurred was taken as a measure of capillary pressure. Several modifications of this method have been introduced, but none has come into general use because the apparatus and technique used in applying direct external pressure are unsuitable for clinical observations. A review of the various methods (and a