Spinal cord blood flow as affected by changes in systemic arterial blood pressure.

The authors used the hydrogen clearance method to measure focal spinal cord blood flow (SCBF) in the rhesus monkey over a wide range of mean arterial blood pressures (MAP) in an attempt to test the hypothesis of autoregulation. The MAP was either lowered by bleeding or raised by the intravenous infusion of norepinephrine or angiotensin. The SCBF remained constant and in the normal range with an MAP of 50 to 135 mm Hg, indicating the presence of autoregulation. Below 50 mm Hg, SCBF fell passively with further decreases in MAP. At MAP values above 135 mm Hg, vasodilatation occurred which resulted in a breakthrough of autoregulation and marked increases in SCBF with further increases in the MAP.