Abnormal regional blood flow responses during and after exercise in human sympathetic denervation

1. Blood pressure, superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and skeletal muscle blood flow, cardiac index (CI) and systemic vascular resistance responses to supine leg exercise were measured in six age-matched normal subjects (controls) and in eleven subjects with sympathetic denervation due to primary autonomic failure (AF). 2. During exercise, blood pressure rose in controls but fell markedly in AF. After exercise, blood pressure rapidly returned to baseline in controls but remained low in AF. During exercise, systemic vascular resistance fell in controls and AF but tended to fall further in AF and remained low post exercise. CI increased similarly in controls and AF. 3. During exercise, SMA blood flow fell similarly in controls and AF, but the fall initially was slower in AF; recovery was more rapid post exercise in controls. SMA vascular resistance tended to rise less and more slowly in AF and remained elevated post exercise. 4. Forearm muscle (FM) blood flow and FM vascular resistance did not change from resting values in controls or AF post exercise. After exercise, leg muscle (LM) blood flow rose and LM vascular resistance fell equally in both groups although LM blood flow remained elevated, 10 min post exercise in AF. 5. In sympathetically denervated humans, increased blood flow (due to excessive vasodilatation, lack of sympathetic restraint, or both) in leg muscle during and after exercise in combination with impaired splanchnic vasoconstriction in the early stages of exercise may have contributed to exercise-induced hypotension.