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A DISEASE OF THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

EUGENE A. STEAD, Jr., M.D.; RICHARD V. EBERT, M.D.

Arch Intern Med. 1941;67(3):546-562.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Man would have syncope while standing upright if it were not for certain adaptive mechanisms which tend to maintain a constant cerebral blood flow. In the standing position the amount of blood present in the upper part of the body is decreased, first, because the vascular bed in the portion of the body below the heart is dilated by a high hydrostatic pressure¹ and, second, because the high capillary pressure causes an increased filtration of fluid from the blood stream and a decrease in plasma volume.² This decrease in blood volume in the upper part of the body is compensated for by vasoconstriction and by increase in heart rate. In a group of subjects first described by Bradbury and Eggleston³ in a discussion of postural hypotension, these reactions failed to compensate for the pooling of blood and there was a striking fall in arterial pressure when the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
BOSTON

From the Medical Clinic of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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