title: Skeletal muscle blood flow and neurovascular reactivity in liver disease.
abstract: There was no significant difference in forearm muscle blood flow, measured by the clearance of (133)Xenon when 38 patients with liver disease were compared with 38 normal subjects. Patients with a clinically hyperdynamic circulation, finger clubbing, and previous portocaval anastomoses were included in the study. The changes in forearm skeletal muscle blood flow and pulse rate caused by a head-up tilt of 70 degrees were measured in 15 patients with chronic liver disease and 15 age-matched controls. Head-up tilting resulted in significantly less peripheral vasoconstriction and tachycardia in the group with liver disease than in the control group. These results suggest an impairment of baroreceptor-mediated sympathetic reactivity in liver disease. Such a defect might explain the relative rarity of hypertension in patients with cirrhosis.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D005260:Female; D005542:Forearm / Q000098:blood supply; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009132:Muscles / Q000098:blood supply*; D010005:Osteoarthropathy, Secondary Hypertrophic / Q000503:physiopathology; D011167:Portacaval Shunt, Surgical; D011187:Posture; D011311:Pressoreceptors; D011674:Pulse; D011868:Radioisotopes; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000209:etiology; D014978:Xenon
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D014978:Xenon