Capillary SvO2 and perfusion. (a) Schematic representation of the circulation (arterial in red, venous in blue, R.A: right atrium, L.A: left atrium, R.V: right ventricle, L.V: left ventricle, I: intestine, L: liver) and a generic capillary bed. (b) Schematic representation of both a hypoperfused capillary (lower dashed line) and normally perfused capillary (upper continuous line) receiving increased perfusion redistributed from the hypoperfused capillary. Following normal oxygen consumption by the tissues adjacent to the capillaries, SvO2 in each capillary is specified as is the resulting SvO2 downstream of the heterogeneously perfused capillaries.
