“…However, such a procedure provokes a huge trauma to the arterial wall and potentially liberates fragments of atherosclerotic material [3], Acute occlusion, although relatively infre quent (1.7-3.1 %), has been shown to be the most common direct complication of the procedure [1,2,4], However, more distal infraclinical emboli following PTA might be much more frequent, as suggested by some experimental data [5,6], Thus, it has been postulated that microvascular impairment and distal atheromatous microembolism might explain the discrepancies reported between the suc cess of coronary recanalization procedures and the unex pected insignificant functional improvement as assessed by an impaired flow reserve [7][8][9]. Although the clinical relevance of such microembolisms is obviously less marked in peripheral tissues than in the coronary circula tion, the former microcirculation, unlike the latter, can be studied easily and noninvasively in the skin by means of two sophisticated techniques, i.e., dynamic capillaroscopy and laser Doppler fluxmetry [10][11][12],…”