Microvascular differences in individuals with obesity at risk of developing cardiovascular disease

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate microvascular differences in individuals with obesity at risk for developing cardiovascular disease. METHODS: In this cross‐sectional Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study, participant sublingual microcirculation was assessed with a newly developed GlycoCheck software (Microvascular Health Solutions Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah), which integrates red blood cell velocity within the smallest capillaries (4‐7 µm) and feed vessels (>10 µm). Framingham Risk Score was used to calculate 10‐year cardiovascular risk, divided into low‐, intermediate‐, and high‐risk groups. ANOVA was used to evaluate microvascular differences among the groups. RESULTS: A total of 813 participants were included. The high‐risk group (n = 168) was characterized by differences in the microvasculature compared with the low‐risk group (n = 392): the high‐risk group had a 49% reduction in the number of smallest capillaries and a 9.1‐µm/s (95% CI: 5.2‐12.9) higher red blood cell velocity in the feed vessels. No differences in velocity‐corrected perfused boundary regions were found. CONCLUSIONS: It was observed that, with adding red blood cell velocity to the software, sidestream dark field imaging is able to detect microcirculatory differences in a cohort of individuals with obesity at risk for developing cardiovascular disease.