Venous Constriction in Response to Head-Up Tilt in Man

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Abstract
There has been disagreement about the role of the peripheral venous system in cardiovascular adjustments to postural stress in man. In part this seems to be due to the technical difficulty in determining venous distensibility by plethysmographic techniques in situations where concomitant changes in blood flow occur. We have demonstrated in this study that rapid and consistent increases in forearm venous tone assessed by venous occlusion plethysmography do occur on head-up tilt in man, and that they can be readily masked by the parallel marked decrease in forearm blood flow. It is concluded that the peripheral venous system in man is not designed to function only in states of severe stress but rather plays an important role in moment-to-moment adjustments of cardiovascular activity.

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