Diameter of arterial microvessels trapping 8--10 micron, 15 micron and 25 micron microspheres as determined by vital microscopy of the hamster cheek pouch.

An assumption inherent in the use of microsphere methodology for measuring regional blood flow is that microspheres are removed from the circulation by impacting in arterial vessels of approximately their own diameter. We investigated the in vivo relationship between the diameter of varying size mic