Cerebral blood flow immediately following brief circulatory stasis

Cerebral blood flow was studied in rabbits immediately following complete circulatory stasis of varying duration. Systemic arterial pressure was measured continuously. The postischemic circulation was examined both by an infusion of carbon black and, in separate experiments, by injection of 14C-antipyrine into the blood. We examined the relationship between the duration of stasis, the postischemic arterial pressure, and the amount of cerebral reperfusion. As stasis increased from 5 to 30 min the pressure required to achieve reperfusion of the entire brain rose from 20 to 100 torr. Following even temporary exposure to arterial pressures above 110 torr all areas of the brain were generally reperfused. Blood flow in reperfused brain varied directly with arterial pressure, indicating failure of autoregulation. At normal (preischemic) arterial pressure, postischemic cortical flow was twice the normal rate. The data indicate that the pressure required to initiate flow in ischemic brain increases as the duration of stasis is lengthened and that once flow occurs there will be a significant hyperperfusion unless systemic arterial pressure is lowered to the low normal or hypotensive range.