Renal blood flow distribution during steady-state exercise and exhaustion in conscious dogs

To determine whether renal blood flow is reduced or redistributed during exercise, we measured total renal flow (TRF) and intrarenal flow distribution (IRFD) in nine dogs. They ran on a motor-driven treadmill at 3-8 mph at grades of 8-15% for an average of 35 min. We measured aortic pressure, heart rate, stroke volume, and cardiac output (CO) via chronically implanted catheters and an electromagnetic flow probe. We injected 15-mum radiolabeled microspheres (85Sr, 141Ce, and 51Cr) via a left atrial catheter during resting control, steady state (SS) and exhaustive (EE) exercise; measured their distribution by gamma spectrometry; and determined TRF as % CO and as ml/100 g per min. We determined IRFD for the outer and inner cortex and the outer medulla. TRF as %CO dropped (P less than 0.05) during both levels of exercise: from 10.2 +/- 0.7% to 3.9 +/- 0.4% (SS) and 3.4 +/- 0.6% (EE). TRF in ml/100 g per min did not change significantly from control (228 +/- 30 ml/100 g per min). IRFD was unchanged with exercise, remaining at about 80, 20, and 3% of TRF for the outer and inner cortex and outer medulla, respectively. We conclude that blood flow is not diverted from the kidneys during severe exercise in the dog.