What is "microvessel"

n. (context medicine English) A very small blood vessel, such as a capillary or arteriole.

Microvessel or microvasculature refers to the smallest systems of blood vessels in a body, including those responsible for microcirculation, the system of smaller blood vessels that distribute blood within tissues. Common examples of microvessels include:

• Arterioles, a small diameter blood vessel that extends and branches out from an artery and leads to capillaries
• Capillaries, the smallest blood vessels
• Metarterioles, a vessel that links arterioles and capillaries
• Venules, a blood vessel that allows deoxygenated blood to return from the capillary beds to the larger blood vessels called veins
• Thoroughfare channel, a venous vessel receiving blood directly from capillary beds. It is a tributary to venules