Temporal and spatial distributions of red cell velocity in capillaries of resting skeletal muscle, including estimates of red cell transit times

Microvascular blood flow in resting skeletal muscle fluctuates with time and varies from capillary to capillary. Our goal was to quantify this observed heterogeneity. We have used a television-computer method and a flying-spot technique to measure red cell velocity in capillaries in frog sartorius. Temporal distributions of velocity in 53 capillaries from 24 frogs were represented by histograms whose mean values ranged from 0.03 to 0.48 mm/sec …