Perturbed and spontaneous regional cerebral blood flow responses to changes in blood pressure after high-level spinal cord injury: The effect of midodrine

Aaron A. Phillips, Andrei V. Krassioukov, Philip N. Ainslie, Darren E.R. Warburton*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    34 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Perturbed and spontaneous regional cerebral blood flow responses to changes in blood pressure after high-level spinal cord injury: the effect of midodrine. J Appl Physiol 116: 645-653, 2014. First published January 16, 2014; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01090.2013.-Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) above the T6 spinal segment suffer from orthostatic intolerance. How cerebral blood flow (CBF) responds to orthostatic challenges in SCI is poorly understood. Furthermore, it is unclear how interventions meant to improve orthostatic tolerance in SCI influence CBF. This study aimed to examine 1) the acute regional CBF responses to rapid changes in blood pressure (BP) during orthostatic stress in individuals with SCI and able-bodied (AB) individuals; and 2) the effect of midodrine (alpha1-agonist) on orthostatic tolerance and CBF regulation in SCI. Ten individuals with SCI T6, and 10 age-and sex-matched AB controls had beat-by-beat BPand middle and posterior cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAv, PCAv, respectively) recorded during a progressive tilt-test to quantify the acute CBF response and orthostatic tolerance. Dynamic MCAv and PCAv to BP relationships were evaluated continuously in the time domain and frequency domain (via transfer function analysis). The SCI group was tested again after administration of 10 mg midodrine to elevate BP. Coherence (i.e., linearity) was elevated in SCI between BP-MCAv and BP-PCAv by 35% and 22%, respectively, compared with AB, whereas SCI BP-PCAv gain (i.e., magnitudinal relationship) was reduced 30% compared with AB (all P 0.05). The acute (i.e., 0-30 s after tilt) MCAv and PCAv responses were similar between groups. In individuals with SCI, midodrine led to improved PCAv responses 30-60 s following tilt (10<3% vs. 4<2% decline; P< 0.05), and a 59% improvement in orthostatic tolerance (P<0.01). The vertebrobasilar region may be particularly susceptible to hypoperfusion in SCI, leading to increased orthostatic intolerance.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)645-653
    Number of pages9
    JournalJournal of Applied Physiology
    Volume116
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 15 Mar 2014

    Keywords

    • Alpha-1 agonist
    • Cerebral autoregulation
    • Orthostatic tolerance

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