scholarly journals Raising the sauropod neck: it costs more to get less

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger S. Seymour
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
Metabolic Rate ◽  
Arterial Blood Pressure ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Energy Cost ◽  
Blood Flow Rate ◽  
Work Rate ◽  
Cardiac Work ◽  
Arterial Blood

The long necks of gigantic sauropod dinosaurs are commonly assumed to have been used for high browsing to obtain enough food. However, this analysis questions whether such a posture was reasonable from the standpoint of energetics. The energy cost of circulating the blood can be estimated accurately from two physiological axioms that relate metabolic rate, blood flow rate and arterial blood pressure: (i) metabolic rate is proportional to blood flow rate and (ii) cardiac work rate is proportional to the product of blood flow rate and blood pressure. The analysis shows that it would have required the animal to expend approximately half of its energy intake just to circulate the blood, primarily because a vertical neck would have required a high systemic arterial blood pressure. It is therefore energetically more feasible to have used a more or less horizontal neck to enable wide browsing while keeping blood pressure low.

Nocturnal variations in peripheral blood flow, systemic blood pressure, and heart rate in humans

1991 ◽  
Vol 261 (4) ◽  
pp. H982-H988
Author(s):  
J. H. Sindrup ◽  
J. Kastrup ◽  
H. Christensen ◽  
B. Jorgensen
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Heart Rate ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
Arterial Blood Pressure ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Mean Arterial Blood Pressure ◽  
Blood Flow Rate ◽  
Tissue Blood Flow ◽  
Peripheral Blood Flow ◽  
Arterial Blood

Subcutaneous adipose tissue blood flow rate, together with systemic arterial blood pressure and heart rate under ambulatory conditions, was measured in the lower legs of 15 normal human subjects for 12-20 h. The 133Xe-washout technique, portable CdTe(Cl) detectors, and a portable data storage unit were used for measurement of blood flow rates. An automatic portable blood pressure recorder and processor unit was used for measurement of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate every 15 min. The change from upright to supine position at the beginning of the night period was associated with a 30-40% increase in blood flow rate and a highly significant decrease in mean arterial blood pressure and heart rate (P less than 0.001 for all). Approximately 100 min after the subjects went to sleep an additional blood flow rate increment (mean 56%) and a simultaneous significant decrease in mean arterial blood pressure (P less than 0.001) were observed. The duration of this hyperemic phase was 116 min. A highly significant reduction of the subcutaneous vascular resistance (50%) was demonstrated during the hyperemic blood flow rate phase compared with the surrounding phases (P less than 0.0001). The synchronism of the nocturnal subcutaneous hyperemia and the decrease in systemic mean arterial blood pressure point to a common, possibly central nervous or humoral, eliciting mechanism.

scholarly journals Cardiovascular Physiology of Dinosaurs

Physiology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 430-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger S. Seymour
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
Body Size ◽  
Metabolic Rate ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Blood Flow Rate ◽  
Cardiovascular Physiology ◽  
Arterial Blood ◽  
Heart Size

Cardiovascular function in dinosaurs can be inferred from fossil evidence with knowledge of how metabolic rate, blood flow rate, blood pressure, and heart size are related to body size in living animals. Skeletal stature and nutrient foramen size in fossil femora provide direct evidence of a high arterial blood pressure, a large four-chambered heart, a high aerobic metabolic rate, and intense locomotion. But was the heart of a huge, long-necked sauropod dinosaur able to pump blood up 9 m to its head?

The relationship of blood flow velocity fluctuations to intracranial pressure B waves

1992 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Newell ◽  
Rune Aaslid ◽  
Renate Stooss ◽  
Hans J. Reulen
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
Intracranial Pressure ◽  
Arterial Blood Pressure ◽  
Wave Amplitude ◽  
Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound ◽  
Normal Subjects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Arterial Blood ◽  
Flow Fluctuations

✓ Intracranial pressure (ICP) and continuous transcranial Doppler ultrasound signals were monitored in 20 head-injured patients and simultaneous synchronous fluctuations of middle cerebral artery (MCA) velocity and B waves of the ICP were observed. Continuous simultaneous monitoring of MCA velocity, ICP, arterial blood pressure, and expired CO2 revealed that both velocity waves and B waves occurred despite a constant CO2 concentration in ventilated patients and were usually not accompanied by fluctuations in the arterial blood pressure. Additional recordings from the extracranial carotid artery during the ICP B waves revealed similar synchronous fluctuations in the velocity of this artery, strongly supporting the hypothesis that blood flow fluctuations produce the velocity waves. The ratio between ICP wave amplitude and velocity wave amplitude was highly correlated to the ICP (r = 0.81, p < 0.001). Velocity waves of similar characteristics and frequency, but usually of shorter duration, were observed in seven of 10 normal subjects in whom MCA velocity was recorded for 1 hour. The findings in this report strongly suggest that B waves in the ICP are a secondary effect of vasomotor waves, producing cerebral blood flow fluctuations that become amplified in the ICP tracing, in states of reduced intracranial compliance.

Forearm and finger blood flow responses to passive body tilts

1979 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. A. Mengesha ◽  
G. H. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
Arterial Blood Pressure ◽  
Vascular Resistance ◽  
Pulse Rate ◽  
Forearm Blood Flow ◽  
Body Tilt ◽  
Finger Blood Flow ◽  
Arterial Blood ◽  
Forearm Vascular Resistance

Ten to fifteen healthy subjects, ages 18--30 yr, were used to assess the correlation of forearm blood flow with graded passive body tilts and vascular resistance and also to discern the relative effects of body tilts on finger blood flow. In the head-up tilts forearm blood flow and arterial blood pressure fell progressively, whereas forearm vascular resistance and pulse rate increased. In the head-down tilts the forearm blood flow and the arterial blood pressure increased, whereas the forearm vascular resistance and pulse rate decreased. These changes were found to be significantly correlated with the different tilt angles and with one another. In a preliminary study it was found that infrared heating of the carpometacarpal region produced finger vasodilatation similar to the forearm vasodilatation observed by Crockford and Hellon (6). However, unlike forearm blood flow, finger blood flow showed no appreciable response to either the head-up or head-down tilts. This indicates that the sympathetic tone and the volume of blood in the finger are not appreciably altered by this test procedure at least 1 min after the body tilt is assumed.

The heart works against gravity

1993 ◽  
Vol 265 (4) ◽  
pp. R715-R720 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Seymour ◽  
A. R. Hargens ◽  
T. J. Pedley
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
Potential Energy ◽  
Flow Rate ◽  
Viscous Resistance ◽  
Arterial Blood ◽  
Experimental Artifact ◽  
Continuous Stream ◽  
Laboratory Models ◽  
Poiseuille Equation

The circulatory systems of vertebrate animals are closed, and blood leaves and returns to the heart at the same level. It is often concluded, therefore, that the heart works only against the viscous resistance of the system, not against gravity, even in vascular loops above the heart in which the siphon principle operates. However, we argue that the siphon principle does not assist blood flow in superior vascular loops if any of the descending vasculature is collapsible. If central arterial blood pressure is insufficient to support a blood column between the heart and the head, blood flow ceases because of vascular collapse. Furthermore, the siphon principle does not assist the heart even when a continuous stream of blood is flowing in a superior loop. The potential energy gained by blood as it is pumped to the head is lost to friction in partially collapsed descending vessels and thus is not regained. Application of the Poiseuille equation to flow in collapsible vessels is limited; resistance depends on flow rate in partially collapsed vessels with no transmural pressure difference, but flow rate is independent of resistance. Thus the pressure developed by the heart to establish a given flow rate is independent of the resistance occurring in the partially collapsed vessels. The pressure depends only on the height of the blood column and the resistance in the noncollapsed parts of the system. Simple laboratory models, involving water flow in collapsible tubing, dispel the idea that the siphon principle facilitates blood flow and suggest that previously published results may have been affected by experimental artifact.

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