부산대학교 도서관

Objective: To examine the relationship between sublingual microcirculatory measures and frailty index in those attending a kidney transplant assessment clinic. Methods: Patients recruited had their sublingual microcirculation taken using sidestream dark field videomicroscopy (MicroScan, Micro Vision Medical, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and their frailty index score using a validated short form via interview. Results: A total of 44 patients were recruited with two being excluded due to microcirculatory image quality scores exceeding 10. The frailty index score indicated significant correlations with total vessel density (p <.0001, r = −.56), microvascular flow index (p =.004, r = −.43), portion of perfused vessels (p =.0004, r = −.52), heterogeneity index (p =.015, r =.32), and perfused vessel density (p <.0001, r = −.66). No correlation was shown between the frailty index and age (p =.08, r =.27). Conclusions: There is a relationship between the frailty index and microcirculatory health in those attending a kidney transplant assessment clinic, that is not confounded by age. These findings suggest that the impaired microcirculation may be an underlying cause of frailty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]