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Int J Angiol 1993; 2(1): 12-15
DOI: 10.1007/BF02651555
Original Articles

© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Impaired cerebral autoregulation in patients with shy-drager syndrome

Marinella Marinoni1 , Andrea Ginanneschi1 , Domenico Inzitari1 , Massimo Mannelli2 , Pietro A. Modesti3 , Luigi Amaducci1
  • 1The Department of Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
  • 2Department of Clinical Physiopathology, Endocrinology Unit, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
  • 3Medical Clinic I, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Presented in part at the 34th Annual Congress of the International College of Angiology, Budapest, Hungary, July 1992
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Publication History

Publication Date:
22 April 2011 (online)

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Abstract

It is still debated whether cerebral autoregulation is preserved in patients presenting Shy-Drager syndrome (SD). In order to evaluate cerebral autoregulation in this disease the authors studied 5 patients with SD and 5 healthy control subjects by means of transcranial Doppler. Changes in mean flow velocity (MV) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA), as well as changes of the systemic mean arterial blood pressure (MBP) were measured at the same time during a tilt-table test. When the patients were tilted from the rest to the orthostatic position, MCA MV showed a rapid and significant decrease in all SD patients (−52.8%); the MCA MV values remained low during 10 minutes at 90°; control patients did not show similar changes (−6.9%), (P=0.0003). Although MBP values showed a considerable decrease during the test in SD patients (−31.0%), these changes never went below the cerebral autoregulation threshold. The authors' data are suggestive of an impairment of cerebral autoregulation in SD patients.