Pathogenesis of experimental hypertension produced by carotid sinus area constriction in dogs.

IN .1954 our research group reported that modest to high level, persistent hypertensions could be produced in dogs by bilateral constriction of the carotid sinus area by means of a plastic clamp which reduced the volume pulse of the sinus and the internal carotid, occipital, and external carotid arteries to approximately one third normal. This report suggested that the hypertension was probably not due to altered carotid sinus function but to altered cerebral hemodynamics. The report summarized previous attempts to produce experimental cerebral hypertension but inadvertently omitted reference to the work of Rosenfeld, who produced a mild hypertension in rabbits by bilateral ligation of the internal and external carotid arteries. Recently hypertension produced by bilateral constriction of the carotid sinus area in dogs has been confirmed in another laboratory and found to be unaffected by bilateral frontal leukotomy or lobectomy. We have continued observations on the hypertensive dogs of our first report, and have produced hypertension in additional dogs by bilateral constriction of the carotid sinus area. We have also studied the effects of bilateral constriction of the internal carotid, occipital, and external carotid arteries above the sinus, of bilateral constriction of the vertebral arteries, and of bilateral resection of the carotid sinus in