Hypercapnia induces potent vasodilation in the cerebral circulation. Although it has long been known that prostanoids participate in the cerebrovascular effects of hypercapnia, the role of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and PGE2 receptors have not been fully investigated. In this study, we sought to determine whether cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1)-derived PGE2 and EP1 receptors are involved in the cerebrova...

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and a significant contributor of morbidity in the United States. In humans, suboptimal cerebral collateral circulation within the circle of Willis (CW) predisposes to ischemia and stroke risk in the setting of occlusive carotid artery disease. Unique genes or developmental pathways responsible for proper CW formation are unknown. Herein we characterize...

Controlled decreases in mean arterial pressure to 20%, 40% and 60% of baseline were produced by the administration of increasing concentrations of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) i.v. in five anaesthetized baboons. Indices of the systemic circulation (arterial pressure, right atrial pressure, pulmonary artery pressures, cardiac output) and of the cerebral circulation (cerebral blood flow, cerebral...

Cerebrovascular occlusive disease has been and continues to be a leading cause of death and disability throughout the world. In the United States there a re about 400,000 new strokes each year. 1 Some 90% of strokes are a result of vascular occlusion of the extracranial circulation.2 Surgical treatment of occlusive vascular diseases, principally carotid endarterectomy, has become an accepted me...

Spinal cord-injured (SCI) individuals, having a sympathetic nervous system lesion, experience hypotension during sitting and standing. Surprisingly, they experience few syncopal events. This suggests adaptations in cerebrovascular regulation. Therefore, changes in systemic circulation, cerebral blood flow, and oxygenation in eight SCI individuals were compared with eight able-bodied (AB) indivi...

Effects of smoking on white matter lesions, such as lacunar infarction and leukoaraiosis, are still controversial. We hypothesized that the endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) genotype was a modulating factor for the effect of smoking on cerebral circulation. We took a cross-sectional population from the participants of a health examination to study the effects of smoking and a single-nucleotide pol...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The effects of hypothermia on global cerebral blood flow (CBF) and glucose utilization (CGU) have been extensively studied, but less information exists on a local cerebral level. We investigated the effects of normothermic and hypothermic anesthesia on local CBF (LCBF) and local CGU (LCGU). METHODS Thirty-six rats were anesthetized with isoflurane (1 MAC) and artificial...

The impulse response function (IRF) of a localized bolus in cerebral blood flow codes important information on the tissue type. It is indirectly accessible both from MR and CT imaging methods, at least in principle. In practice, however, noise and limited signal resolution render standard deconvolution techniques almost useless. Parametric signal descriptions look more promising, and it is the ...