| Thirty male Wistar rats, weighing 350 to 400 gm each, received stereotactic injections of 6-hydroxydopamine (300 micrograms/kg) into the left lateral ventricle. The same amount of saline was injected into a control group of 15 rats. Seven days after this procedure, cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured by the hydrogen clearance method. A hypertensive condition at a mean arterial pressure of about 160 mm Hg was maintained for 1 hour by intravenous infusion of phenylephrine. In the 6-hydroxydopamine-treated group, CBF increased significantly after the elevation of systemic blood pressure compared with that in the control group, and cerebral autoregulation was impaired. After a 1-hour study, the specific gravity of the cerebral tissue in the treated group significantly decreased; electron microscopic studies at that time revealed brain edema. It is suggested that depletion of brain noradrenaline levels causes a disturbance in cerebral microvascular tone and renders the cerebral blood vessels more vulnerable to hypertension. | |
| Authors | H Kobayashi, M Hayashi, H Kawano, Y Handa, M Kabuto, H Ide (Affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Fukui Medical School, Matsuoka, Japan.) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of neurosurgery (J Neurosurg) Vol. 75 Issue 6 Pg. 906-10 (Dec 1991) ISSN: 0022-3085 UNITED STATES |
| PMID | 1941119 (Publication Type: Journal Article) |
"Sympathectomy is a technique about which we have limited knowledge, applied to disorders about which we have little understanding." Associate Professor Robert Boas, Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australasian College of Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Anaesthetists, The Journal of Pain, Vol 1, No 4 (Winter), 2000: pp 258-260