Abstract
1. Six patients with long-standing physiologically complete cervical spinal cord lesions and two normal subjects were examined.
2. In the tetraplegic subjects, arterial blood pressure, heart rate, plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline were measured at rest and during bladder percussion, during electrical stimulation of muscles and during infusion of noradrenaline.
3. In the normal subjects arterial blood pressure and heart rate were recorded before and during noradrenaline infusion.
4. Bladder percussion and muscle stimulation caused a rise in plasma noradrenaline from a subnormal level, together with a rise in blood pressure.
5. A similar rise in blood pressure due to noradrenaline infusion occurred at a very much greater level of plasma noradrenaline.
6. It is concluded that hypertension in tetraplegic subjects who have bladder percussion or muscle stimulation, is due to sympathetic overactivity rather than adrenal medullary secretion. Findings are consistent with, but not conclusive of, supersensitivity of the blood vessels of tetraplegic subjects to noradrenaline.
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Debarge, O., Christensen, N., Corbett, J. et al. Plasma catecholamines in tetraplegics. Spinal Cord 12, 44–49 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1974.8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1974.8
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