The Use of in vivoMicrodialysis in the Theoretical and Clinical Research

Overview

Microdialysis is in vivo technique that permits monitoring of local concentrations of metabolites and drugs at specificsites in the body that makes it an attractive tool for the basic and clinical research. Microdialysis entered theexperimental studies of the brain, and later also of the peripheral tissues such as adipose and muscle tissues, kidney,lung, eye, skin, and blood. There are several critical factors in the experimental implementations of microdialysis:the probe, the perfusion solution, tissue integrity, and the sensitivity of microdialysate analysis method. When theexperimental conditions are optimised to give valid results, microdialysis can provide numerous data from therelatively small number of individual subjects. It can bring about detailed clinical information reflecting freemetabolite and drug concentrations in studied tissues and/or in plasma. With the progress of analytical methods,applications and importance of the microdialysis technique in clinical and pharmacokinetic research and diagnosticswill increase.

Key words:
microdialysis, basic research, clinical practice, therapy.