Complex Dynamics in the Kidney Microcirculation

Abstract

Maintaining the volume and composition of the body fluids within narrow bounds is one of the chief functions the kidneys perform. The successful achievement of this goal provides other tissues and organs the stable environment needed for their own particular functions. One of these other organs is the heart, whose action leads to perfusion with blood of organs like the kidney. The proper function of the kidneys depends on adequate blood perfusion, and the kidneys play an especially important role in blood pressure regulation by maintaining the volume of the extracellular fluid, and therefore of the blood. Normal blood volume is important for the heart to achieve stable blood pressure. The relationships between renal function and blood pressure regulation form an essential duality that is crucial to normal function, and that fails in a number of disease states. The interaction between kidney function and blood pressure regulation occurs at a number of points, and analysis of the dynamics invariably provides an informative point of departure.