Abnormal hindquarter vasoconstrictor tone, a feature common to various kinds of hypertensive rats.

Hindquarter peripheral resistance, calculated as arterial pressure divided by hindquarter blood flow, decreased significantly on ganglionic blockade with hexamethonium bromide in four kinds of experimentally hypertensive rats, i.e. spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), DOCA-salt hypertensive rats, and one-kidney, one-clip and two-kidney, one-clip renovascular hypertensive rats, but not in normotensive control rats in the conscious state. Abnormal hindquarter vasoconstrictor tone seems to be a feature common to various kinds of hypertensive rats.