Adrenocortical Blood Supply During Hemorrhage in Dogs

Abstract

In recent years we have found that venous outflow from the adrenal gland did not reflect reliably the effective blood supply of cortical and medullary tissues in dogs (Monos et al. 1969, 1970; Sulyok et al. 1970). The venous outflow was several times higher than the effective flow, and their proportion could be shifted by such interferences as venous stagnation, or administration of pituitary hormones. Figure 1 is meant to demonstrate quantitatively some of these results. As it is indicated, at control state the mean adrenal venous outflow was more than 4 ml/min/g, but the cortical and medullary blood supply determined by H₂-desaturation technique was below 1 ml/min/g. After artificial obstruction of the vein, while total outflow decreased to 25% of the initial value, the decrease in cortical and medullary flow amounted 40–50% only.