Peripheral vascular responses to fluorocarbon administration

To detect the local effect of hyperoxia on skeletal muscle vasculature, 2.5-ml boluses of oxygenated or deoxygenated fluorocarbon emulsion (F-O2 or F-N2) were washed through the hindlimb of anesthetized dogs at prevailing arterial pressure. Instantaneous hematocrit changes at the outflow were registered and stored in digital form with the red cells serving as the nondiffusible tracer in the resulting washout curves. A gamma density function was fitted and the gamma index (1/square root of alpha) was derived as a measure of skewness or perfusion heterogeneity. After recovery from the initial hypotensive reaction to fluorocarbon emulsion, washout curves for F-O2 and F-N2 were registered and blood samples were taken during 40 min of normoxia followed by 40 min of hypoxic hypoxia. The initial reaction to fluorocarbon significantly increased the gamma index so that the experiments began with a high index of perfusion heterogeneity in the limb vasculature. No significant difference was seen between F-O2 and F-N2 in normoxia but F-O2 maintained greater heterogeneity during hypoxia. The increased heterogeneity observed after the fluorocarbon reaction correlated highly with the severity of the hypotensive reaction which was also found to correlate inversely with the ability of the limb musculature to increase the O2 extraction ratio with onset of hypoxia. This blunting of microcirculatory reactivity to hyperoxia and hypoxia was attributed, in part, to the initial transient fluorocarbon reaction, possibly mediated by complement activation.