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Updated: Aug 24, 2026
Evaluation of Cerebral Blood Flow Autoregulation in the Rat Using Laser Doppler Flowmetry
Published on: January 19, 2020
[Autoregulation of dynamic cerebral blood flow during hypotensive anesthesia with prostaglandin E1 or nitroglycerin]
Naoto Kubota1, Ken-ichi Iwasaki, Hisashi Ishikawa
1Department of Anesthesiology Nihon University, School of Medicine, Tokyo 173-8610.
Background:
Autoregulation of dynamic cerebral blood flow during hypotensive anesthesia is unclear. We examined the effects of hypotensive anesthesia with prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) or nitroglycerin (NTG) on autoregulation of the dynamic cerebral blood flow.
Methods:
Beat-by-beat mean arterial pressure (MAP) and blood flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery were measured before and during hypotensive anesthesia. The relationship between changes in MAP and cerebral blood flow velocity was evaluated by using the method of transfer function analysis. We calculated transfer function gain and coherence by cross-spectrum from autospectra of MAP and blood flow velocity in the low (0.07-0.2 Hz) and high (0.2-0.3 Hz) frequency ranges.
Results:
The gain in the both frequency ranges was unchanged during hypotensive anesthesia with PGE1. During hypotensive anesthesia with NTG, the gain in the high frequency range was unchanged, either. However, the gain in the low frequency range increased during hypotensive anesthesia with NTG. The value was significantly higher than in hypotensive anesthesia with PGE1.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that hypotensive anesthesia with PGE1 maintains autoregulation of the dynamic cerebral blood flow, but NTG impairs the autoregulation in the low frequency range.
