Intracerebral gas partial pressure changes under vasoactive drugs

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Abstract
An original technique based on mass spectrometry has been used to measure simultaneously in undrugged, freely-breathing animals localPO2 andPCO2 in the brain (caudate nucleus) and arterialPO2 andPCO2 in the aorta. Injection of vasoactive drugs brought about significant modifications of the partial pressures of the physiological gases in the brain. The origin of these variations was discussed, based on the combination of 3 possible factors: cerebral vascular changes, systemic metabolic changes (PaO2 andPaCO2) and local metabolic changes. It was demonstrated that local variations ofPCO2 cannot be held to be responsible for the modifications of cerebral blood flow induced by papaverine or the sympathomimetic drugs.