Normal physiology and pathophysiology of human cerebral blood flow

Abstract

The literature about physiology of the cerebral circulation is quite extensive since the study of the physiology of the cerebral circulation started in the latter half of the 19th century [1]. The possibility of studying human cerebral circulation in vivo by the use of radioactive isotopes has been an advance which has led to a large number of publications in this field. The studies of the physiology and pathology of the cerebral circulation have been published in many articles from numerous research groups. The reports are often overlapping in subject and results. Discrepancies in results and interpretation are frequently encountered and observations in normal volunteers have been relatively scarce. Our personal views of the subject only are presented in this chapter in order not to burden the reader with confusing discrepancies which arise when all the relevant literature is taken into consideration. This implies that a complete list of relevant literature will not be given and only a list of articles which can be considered as review articles or as representative papers for important topics is given at the end of this chapter.