Cardiac output and distribution of blood volume in central and peripheral circulations in hypertensive and normotensive man.

Most haemodynamic studies of arterial hyper- tension have been concerned with cardiac output and peripheral resistance (Page and McCubbin, 1965). Some, additionally, have investigated re- gional distribution of blood flow and vascular resistances, whereas only a few, dealing with circulation in the extremities, were designed to provide information about the venous segment of the circu- lation (Wood, 1961; Caliva et al., 1963a, b). These studies of the capacitance segment in hypertension dealt only with regional circulations; there has been no report on the relationships of total blood volume to its distribution between the central and peripheral circulations, to cardiac output, or to systemic arterial pressure in hypertensive patients.