Effect of hypocalcaemia on blood flow distribution in sheep

Cardiac output, the proportion of blood passing through arteriovenous shunts and blood flow distribution to various organs were measured and compared in five normocalcaemic and five hypocalcaemic sheep using radioactive microspheres. Hypocalcaemia was induced by infusing sodium EDTA solution intravenously for two hours. There was evidence that microspheres were leached from liver, muscle, adrenal and thyroid tissues during the induction of hypocalcaemia. Hypocalcaemia reduced blood flow rates by more than 58 per cent in all tissues examined except kidney (48 per cent), heart (53 per cent), lung (10 per cent) and bladder (47 per cent) and reduced cardiac output from 3.70 +/- 0.19 (mean +/- SE) litres min-1 to 2.39 +/- 0.14 litres min-1. Approximately 2.2 per cent of cardiac output passed through arteriovenous shunts. This percentage was unaffected by hypocalcaemia.