Fig. 1

a Microcirculatory measurements showing the median and interquartile range between the survivors (S) and non-survivors (NS) for a all vessels and b small vessels at the initiation of the VA-ECMO insertion (T1), 48–72 h after VA-ECMO initiation (T2), and 5–6 days after VA-ECMO initiation (T3). AU arbitrary units, MFI microvascular flow index, PPV proportion of perfused vessels, PVD perfused vessel density, TVD total vessel density