title: Autoregulation of cerebral blood flow during normocapnia and hypocapnia in dogs.
abstract: The effect of hypocapnia on autoregulation of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and the lower limit of autoregulation (LLA) was determined in dogs anesthetized with nitrous oxide (66%) and halothane (0.2%, end-expired concentration). CBF and cerebral vascular resistance (CVR) were determined during both normocapnia and hypocapnia (PaCO2 21-22 mmHg) at control cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) and after reducing CPP (by hemorrhage) to 80%, 60%, 50%, and 40% of control. At control CPP hypocapnia decreased CBF from 75 +/- 5 to 48 +/- 3 ml.100 g-1.min-1 (mean +/- SEM, P less than 0.05). During both normocapnia and hypocapnia CVR decreased and CBF did not change as CPP was reduced to 60% of control. When CPP was reduced to 50% or 40% of control, CVR remained decreased and CBF fell sharply. The LLA during hypocapnia, 61 +/- 2% of control CPP, was not different than that during normocapnia, 59 +/- 3% of control CPP. Below the LLA the CBF-CPP slopes differed from zero but did not differ between hypocapnia and normocapnia. Hypocapnia does not produce a substantial shift of the LLA, and over the range of CPP values studied here, autoregulatory cerebral vasodilation only partially abolishes hypocapnia-induced cerebral vasoconstriction. The results suggest that when cerebral autoregulation is intact and in the absence of cerebrovascular disease, hypocapnia does not reduce global CBF to a level that is likely to produce ischemia and remains a useful therapeutic treatment so long as CPP remains above the LLA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle 98195.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Artru
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Colley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000097:blood*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D004285:Dogs; D006706:Homeostasis
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide