The effect of distension of the stomach on peripheral blood flow in anaesthetized pigs

The present study was undertaken in anaesthetized pigs to determine the primary reflex effects of gastric distension on the peripheral circulation. Changes in blood flow in the splenic, superior mesenteric, left renal and left external iliac arteries were assessed using electromagnetic flowmeters during distension of a balloon in the stomach, performed at constant aortic blood pressure and heart rate, with 0.61 of Ringer solution (mean gastric transmural pressure of about 12 mmHg). In fourteen pigs, a decrease in splenic, renal and iliac flows and variable changes in mesenteric flow were obtained. A decrease in mesenteric flow and more marked decreases in the other flows occurred in response to the distension after the administration of propranolol or butoxamine. In five pigs, the vasoconstrictive responses were graded by step increments in gastric distending volume from 0.4 to 0.81. The above responses were abolished by the administration of phentolamine (eight pigs) and by bilateral cervical vagotomy (six pigs). The results showed that innocuous distension of the stomach in anaesthetized pigs reflexly caused vasoconstriction in the splenic, renal and iliac vascular beds; vasoconstriction also occurred in the mesenteric vascular bed but only after β-blockade. These reflex responses were mediated by sympathetic mechanisms which involved both α and β vascular adrenoceptors and their afferent limb was in the vagal nerves.