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The interaction of carbon dioxide and hypoxia in the control of cerebral blood flow

  • Integrative Physiology
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An Erratum to this article was published on 08 December 2012

Abstract

Both hypoxia and carbon dioxide increase cerebral blood flow (CBF), and their effective interaction is currently thought to be additive. Our objective was to test this hypothesis. Eight healthy subjects breathed a series of progressively hypoxic gases at three levels of carbon dioxide. Middle cerebral artery velocity, as an index of CBF; partial pressures of carbon dioxide and oxygen and concentration of oxygen in arterial blood; and mean arterial blood pressure were monitored. The product of middle cerebral artery velocity and arterial concentration of oxygen was used as an index of cerebral oxygen delivery. Two-way repeated measures analyses of variance (rmANOVA) found a significant interaction of carbon dioxide and hypoxia factors for both CBF and cerebral oxygen delivery. Regression models using sigmoidal dependence on carbon dioxide and a rectangular hyperbolic dependence on hypoxia were fitted to the data to illustrate this interaction. We concluded that carbon dioxide and hypoxia act synergistically in their control of CBF so that the delivery of oxygen to the brain is enhanced during hypoxic hypercapnia and, although reduced during normoxic hypocapnia, can be restored to normal levels with progressive hypoxia.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the University of Toronto Merit award to JAF and a nondirected grant from Thornhill Research, Inc.

Conflict of interest

JAF is Chief Scientist and JD is Senior Scientist at Thornhill Research, Inc. (TRI), a spin-off company from the University Health Network that developed the RespirAct™. RespirAct™ is currently a noncommercial research tool made available for this research by TRI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 1A8

    Alexandra Mardimae, Dahlia Y. Balaban, Matthew A. Machina, Jay S. Han, Joseph A. Fisher & James Duffin

  2. Department of Anaesthesia, University of Toronto and University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Rita Katznelson, Leonid L. Minkovich, Ludwik Fedorko, Patricia M. Murphy, Marcin Wasowicz, Finola Naughton, Massimiliano Meineri, Joseph A. Fisher & James Duffin

  3. Thornhill Research, Inc., 210 Dundas St., W. Suite 200, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5G 2E8

    James Duffin

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  1. Alexandra Mardimae
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Correspondence to James Duffin.

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Mardimae, A., Balaban, D.Y., Machina, M.A. et al. The interaction of carbon dioxide and hypoxia in the control of cerebral blood flow. Pflugers Arch - Eur J Physiol 464, 345–351 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-012-1148-1

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