Microangiopathy
Microangiopathy (also known as microvascular disease, small vessel disease (SVD) or microvascular dysfunction) is a disease of the microvessels, small blood vessels in the microcirculation. It can be contrasted to macroangiopathies such as atherosclerosis, where large and medium-sized arteries (e.g., aorta, carotid and coronary arteries) are primarily affected.
| Microangiopathy | |
|---|---|
| A case of conjunctival microangiopathy (red dashed-square) secondary to diabetes demonstrating a microaneurysm (orange arrow), vessel dilatation (blue arrows), and vascular tortuosity (yellow arrow). | |
| Examples of microvascular diseases. |
Small vessel diseases (SVDs) affect primarily organs that receive significant portions of cardiac output such as the brain, the kidney, and the retina. Thus, SVDs are a major etiologic cause in debilitating conditions such as renal failure, blindness, lacunar infarcts, and dementia.