The Cardiovascular System III./1-2. [antikvár]

PrefaceComposition of a preface is the final task of the editors of each Handbook of Physiology pubUshed by the American Physiological Society. The willingness of many distinguished and busy scientists to write chapters in their field of expertise allayed aU concerns about accepting the challenge of the Steering Committee to provide a collection of papers encompassing the subject of peripheral circulation and organ blood flow. The table of contents illustrates the wide range of topics addressed. Because the Handbooks are published at long intervals, each author was asked to give a broad overview of the current knowledge that would be a key reference for many years and also would provide guidelines for future studies to those entering the field. No limit was imposed on the length of manuscript or the number of illustrations. Authors were encouraged to express their views within proper scientific restraints, to guide the reader with appropriate summaries, and to indicate where new knowledge is required. These Handbooks are not designed for bedside relaxation; rather they are encyclopedias to be read and reread by a thoughtful audience. The reader can share the author's long experience and broad perspectives, see how knowledge and understanding have advanced, and appreciate the extraordinary complexity of the processes regulating the cardiovascular system. Discerning readers wül recognize the signposts to new discoveries that await investigators with the appropriate imagination, skills, and determination.The prior Handbook on the regulation of the circulation to the lungs and systemic vascular beds was published in 1963. To include the subsequent growth of knowledge about the local, humoral, and nervous mechanisms regulating organ blood flow and to coordinate overall cardiovascular function necessitates many more pages of text; therefore the chapters have been arranged in two parts. Part 1 covers the regulation of blood flow to individual vascular beds; part 2 discusses the cardiovascular reflexes and circulatoryintegration. This volume complements the two already published on the heart and on vascular smooth muscle, and a volimie on the microcirculation wUl complete this series on the cardiovascular system.Part 1 begins with a historical perspective by Eric NeU of the development of key concepts of the regulation of the peripheral circulation. Properly he begins with William Harvey's proof that a circulation does exist. Neil reminds us that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." An appropriate quotation from Claude Bernard ends the chapter: "the minds that rise and become reaUy great are never self-satisfied but still continue to strive."Subsequent chapters describe the use of intravascular, freely diffusible, and extracellular indicators to study the peripheral circulation, the quantitation and role of the viscoelastic properties of the blood vessels in cardiovascular hemodynamics, and historical and current concepts of the pulmonary circulation (including circulatory requirements for rapid gas exchange, mechanisms that increase the capacity for oxygen uptake and optimize blood oxygenation, causes of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction, and fiinction of the pulmonary endothehum). The chapter on cerebral circulation describes anatomical features, gives new methods for measuring regional blood flow and metabohsm, reviews the neural, chemical, and metabohc regulation, and outlines the effects of blood viscosity changes and atherosclerosis. The chapter on renal circulation discusses methods for measuring glomerular capUlary pressure, effective filtration rate, and segmental vascular resistance, defines peritubular capillary dynamics and intrarenal distribution of blood flow, and describes mechanisms of autoregulation. The contributions of the Uver, spleen, and intestines to the changes in total splanchnic blood flow and to active and passive changes in splanchnic blood volume are reviewed, and their importance in circulatory regulation is defined. The dual function of blood flow to the female reproductive organs, serving both homeostasis