Retrograde cerebral perfusion did not influence immediate post-arrest nasopharyngeal temperature or cerebral metabolic recovery. The low jugular bulb Po(2) suggests equivalent ischemia. These findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of retrograde cerebral perfusion as a metabolic adjunct to hypothermic circulatory arrest.

Renal function was measured sequentially in 32 patients with proven renovascular hypertension who were treated with the oral angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor captopril. Renal function was assessed by serial measurement of serum creatinine. Six patients showed acute rises in serum creatinine concentration compatible with acute renal failure. Acute renal failure was confined to those patients with stenosis to a solitary kidney (transplant or native, occurring in 3 of 8 patients) or bilateral renal artery stenosis (occurring in 3 of 13 patients). No rise in serum creatinine concentration was observed in 11 patients with unilateral renal artery stenosis during long-term angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor therapy. Acute renal failure during angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor therapy was not related to the degree of blood pressure fall or the plasma angiotensin II level. Eleven patients with renovascular hypertension were followed prospectively with estimation of renal function by 99mTc-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) clearance (determined by computer analysis of scintillation camera renography). In six patients with unilateral renal artery stenosis, total 99mTc-DTPA clearance and serum creatinine level remained constant following angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor therapy, while in five patients with bilateral renal artery stenosis 99mTc-DTPA clearance fell from 40 +/- 9 to 27 +/- 5 ml/min (p less than 0.05). Split renal function studies revealed that 99mTc-DTPA clearance fell in most kidneys with stenosed arteries during angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition, including the stenosed kidney from patients with unilateral renal artery stenosis (16 stenosed kidneys studied; change in Tc-DTPA clearance, -7.5 +/- 2.7 ml/min).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

A B S T R A C T We undertook to determine the extent to which the inhibition in absolute proximal fluid reabsorption in response to expansion of extracellular volume with noncolloid-containing solutions is the result of concomitant reductions in postglomerular (efferent arteriolar) protein concentration. Selective elevation of efferent arteriolar oncotic pressure in volume-expanded rats (Ringer's 10% body weight) to levels slightly in excess of normal by microperfusion with 9-10% albumin-Ringer's solution nearly completely reversed the inhibition in absolute and fractional reabsorption in adjacent proximal tubules. In contrast, during similar microperfusion with a 6-7% albumin solution, no increase in proximal reabsorption was measured. We interpret these findings to indicate that the bulk of the inhibition in absolute proximal reabsorption in response to volume expansion with colloid-free solutions is causally mediated by the accompanying parallel decline in postglomerular vascular protein concentration.

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