Regional blood flow and vascular resistance during hypothermia in dog

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California; and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sabbatsberg Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

Changes in regional blood flow and regional vascular resistance during hypothermia in dogs with intact or abolished shivering mechanisms were measured with sine-wave electromagnetic flowmeters. In animals with shivering intact, cooling produced a fall in renal and carotid blood flows, despite a rise or no change in cardiac output. The fall was caused by an increase in renal and carotid vascular resistances. Femoral blood flow increased because of a decrease in vascular resistance. In animals with shivering abolished, cooling evoked a fall in the cardiac output and in renal and femoral blood flows, due to an increase in the vascular resistance. Upon rewarming, femoral flow immediately rose to values far above control. Carotid flow increased during cooling because of a decline in carotid resistance. Such a decline might have been related to the elevated blood Pco₂ observed in the nonshivering animals.