title: [Cerebral hemodynamics in chronic hypoxic hypoxia].
abstract: The effects of chronic-hypoxic hypoxia on cerebral blood flow and its regulating mechanisms were investigated by means of intracardiac injection of radioactively labelled microspheres. In a gas chamber designed and constructed for the purpose, adult cats were exposed to stepwise decreasing inspiratory oxygen concentrations (for 4.5 months with a final O2 concentration of 8 vol%). Using animals adapted to hypoxic hypoxia, responsiveness of cerebral blood flow either to alterations in systemic arterial pressure (SAP) or to alterations in arterial blood oxygen tension (PaO2) were assessed. Flow measurement was done under three different conditions: normoxic normotension (PaO2 greater than 100 mmHg; SAP greater than 100 mmHg), hypoxic normotension (PaO2 = 30 mmHg; SAP greater than 100 mmHg), or normoxic hypotension (PaO2 greater than 100 mmHg; SAP = 60 mmHg). Hematocrit values continuously increased to 56% during the process of adaptation to hypoxia. There was also a remarkable increase in cardiac output of hypoxia-adapted animals subjected to hypoxia and to normoxia. Chronic-hypoxic hypoxia led to increased cerebral blood flow, which persisted even when animals were returned to normoxia. Under hemorrhagic hypotension, cerebral blood flow fell significantly in animals adapted to chronic-hypoxic hypoxia but did not fall short of the absolute values in controls. The relative reduction in cerebral blood flow might be attributable to the decrease in cardiac output and to altered blood viscosity. This implied that, even in animals subjected to long-standing graded hypoxic hypoxia, autoregulatory capacity might be partly preserved.
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002302:Cardiac Output; D002415:Cats; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D006400:Hematocrit; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010313:Partial Pressure
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen