Abstract
Conventionally, vessels exhibiting diameters between 100 μm and 5 μm are related to the ubiquitarian microcirculatory realm that gathers the arterioles, the capillaries and the venules. This important network represents a fundamental anatomical and functional unit involved in all vital processes of human tissues. The microcirculatory system secures and regulates the microvascular flow and intraluminal pressure within specific organs (including the lower extremities). These purposes are achieved by harmonising the luminal diameter of regional microvessels to the changing metabolic needs, oxygen demand, neurologic signals, and eventual pathological surrounding conditions. Particularly in patients with diabetes mellitus, hyperglycaemia can generate characteristic microcirculatory damage through molecular, biochemical, structural, and functional alterations, which add reactional, self-unfolding, hypoxic and pro-coagulant local tissue conditions. Among various localisations of diabetic microvascular disease (retinopathy, nephropathy, peripheral neuropathy, etc.), diabetic foot microangiopathy essentially produces aberrant arteriolar wall remodelling, coupled with progressive thickening and stiffness of the concerned microvessels, which can lead to increased regional blood flow occlusions and increasing local tissue ischemia. Progressive structural and functional impairment of endothelial cells in arterioles and capillaries is well known in diabetes mellitus and mirrors the gradual loss of microvascular repair ability. Recent video-capillaroscopy research specifically conducted in patients with diabetes documented that the duration of diabetes and the severity of chronic hyperglycaemic levels, significantly influenced the spread and gravity of peripheral diabetic microangiopathy. This latest combined with peripheral macrovascular arterial disease manifested a 12-fold higher risk for major amputation, while suboptimal glycaemic control during and post-revascularization showed a significantly higher propensity for major adverse limb events in patients with chronic arterial disease and diabetic microangiopathy. This review equally avails a succinct overview of current diagnostic and treatment methods applied to diabetic microangiopathy concomitantly to prompt macrovascular revascularization, owing systematic surveillance by a multidisciplinary diabetic foot team. Significant clinical implications of inferior limb microangiopathy isolated, versus associated to diabetic arteriopathy and neuropathy, or to other parallel systemic microvascular manifestations are developed in distinct paragraphs, following referred recommendations, for better clinical knowledge and applicability.