Why the study?
Does severe arterial hypertension alter the autoregulation limits of cerebral blood flow compared to normotensive controls?
Does severe arterial hypertension alter the autoregulation limits of cerebral blood flow compared to normotensive controls?
Severe hypertension shifts the autoregulatory limits of cerebral blood flow upwards, which has important implications for the safe lowering of blood pressure during antihypertensive therapy.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Suggests caution with BP lowering in severe hypertension; extends case-control evidence on cerebral autoregulation but leaves clinical targets open.
Cerebral blood flow was studied by the arteriovenous oxygen difference method in patients with severe hypertension and in normotensive controls. The blood pressure was lowered to study the lower limit of autoregulation (the pressure below which cerebral blood flow decreases) and the pressure limit of brain hypoxia. Both limits were shifted upwards in the hypertensive patients, probably as a consequence of hypertrophy of the arteriolar walls. These findings have practical implications for antihypertensive therapy. When the blood pressure was raised some patients showed an upper limit of autoregulation beyond which an increase of cerebral blood flow above the resting value was seen without clinical symptoms. No evidence of vasospasm was found in any patient at high blood pressure. These observations may be of importance for the understanding of the pathogenesis of hypertensive encephalopathy.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Strandgaard et al. (1974) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: