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INTRAHEPATIC VASCULAR PATHWAYS
Author(s) -
Andrews W. H. H.,
Lozano I. Del Rio
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
quarterly journal of experimental physiology and cognate medical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1469-445X
pISSN - 0033-5541
DOI - 10.1113/expphysiol.1963.sp001643
Subject(s) - medicine , hexamethonium , portal venous pressure , blood pressure , anesthesia , acetylcholine , cats , blockade , bretylium , portal hypertension , cirrhosis , adrenergic , receptor
Experiments were carried out on dogs, cats and rabbits. Under anæsthesia fine polythene cannulæ were inserted so that injections of acetylcholine and catechol amines could be made into the portal venous, the systemic venous and the hepatic arterial systems. Carotid arterial pressure was recorded. Much larger amounts of acetylcholine were needed when injected into the portal vein than when injected into the hepatic artery to produce the same response in arterial pressure. With adrenaline and noradrenaline the difference between the two hepatic circulations was much less marked, except in some rabbits. In more than half the experiments in which it was carried out, cooling or section of the hepatic branch of the cœliac plexus altered the blood pressure response to drugs injected into the hepatic circulation, the arterial and portal systems being affected differently. Changes evoked by nerve cooling were reversible. Ganglionic blockade with hexamethonium bromide, and sympathetic blockade with choline 2:6 xylyl ether bromide or bretylium, also affected the intrahepatic circulation of blood, as did stimulation of the sympathetic nerve from the cœliac plexus. It was concluded that portal venous and hepatic arterial blood may, under some circumstances, flow through different pathways which are under autonomic control.