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In total, 35 critically ill COVID-19 patients were included. Twenty-one critically ill COVID-19 patients with a Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score below or equal to 7 were compared to 14 critically ill COVID-19 patients with a SOFA score exceeding 7. All patients received dexamethasone and tocilizumab at ICU admission. Microcirculatory measurements were performed within the first five days of ICU admission, preferably as soon as possible after admission. An increase in diffusive capacity of the microcirculation (total vessel density, functional capillary density, capillary hematocrit) and increased perfusion of the tissues by red blood cells was found in the critically ill COVID-19 patients with a SOFA score of 7\u20139 compared to the critically ill COVID-19 patients with a SOFA score\u2009\u2264\u20097. No such effects were found in the convective component of the microcirculation. These effects occurred in the presence of administration of anti-inflammatory medication.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-024-56245-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,18]],"date-time":"2024-03-18T08:01:38Z","timestamp":1710748898000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["The microcirculation in the first days of ICU admission in critically ill COVID-19 patients is influenced by severity of disease"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0365-3974","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fleur","family":"Brouwer","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0933-9305","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Can","family":"Ince","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiska","family":"Pols","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9226-7508","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Z\u00fchre","family":"Uz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2765-881X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Matthias Peter","family":"Hilty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5242-3257","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mendi Sesmu","family":"Arbous","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,18]]},"reference":[{"issue":"6","key":"56245_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"577","DOI":"10.1002\/jmv.25757","volume":"92","author":"LQ Li","year":"2020","unstructured":"Li, L. 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He receives no royalties or benefits from this license. He has been a consultant for MicroVision Medical in the past but has not been involved with this company for more than 5\u00a0years now and holds no shares or stock.\u00a0Braedius Medical, a company owned by a relative of Dr. Ince, developed and designed a handheld microscope, the Cytocam based on incident darkfield imaging, that was used in this study Dr. Ince has no financial relationship with Braedius Medical of any sort and has never owned shares, or received consultancy or speaker fees from Braedius Medical.\u00a0The MicroTools software is being developed by Dr. Hilty and owned by Active Medical BV Leiden, The Netherlands, of which Dr. Ince and Dr. Hilty are shareholders. Active Medical runs an Internet site called microcirculationacademy.org<sup>32<\/sup> which offers educational courses and services related to clinical microcirculation. Dr. Ince\u2019s institution received funding from La Jolla Pharmaceuticals and Cytosorbents Monmouth, and he received funding from Fresenius-Kabi. Dr. Ince and Dr. Hilty disclosed that the MicroTools software that was used for the analysis of the images in the current study is owned by Active Medical, of which Dr. Ince and Dr. Hilty own shares. The remaining authors have disclosed that they do not have any potential conflicts of interest.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"6454"}}