Taneja I, Moran C, Medow MS, Glover JL, Montgomery LD, Stewart JM. Differential effects of lower body negative pressure and upright tilt on splanchnic blood volume. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 292: H1420 -H1426, 2007. First published November 3, 2006; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01096.2006.-Upright posture and lower body negative pressure (LBNP) both induce reductions in central blood volume. However, regional circulatory responses to postural changes and LBNP may differ. Therefore, we studied regional blood flow and blood volume changes in 10 healthy subjects undergoing graded lower-body negative pressure (Ϫ10 to Ϫ50 mmHg) and 8 subjects undergoing incremental head-up tilt (HUT; 20°, 40°, and 70°) on separate days. We continuously measured blood pressure (BP), heart rate, and regional blood volumes and blood flows in the thoracic, splanchnic, pelvic, and leg segments by impedance plethysmography and calculated regional arterial resistances. Neither LBNP nor HUT altered systolic BP, whereas pulse pressure decreased significantly. Blood flow decreased in all segments, whereas peripheral resistances uniformly and significantly increased with both HUT and LBNP. Thoracic volume decreased while pelvic and leg volumes increased with HUT and LBNP. However, splanchnic volume changes were directionally opposite with stepwise decreases in splanchnic volume with LBNP and stepwise increases in splanchnic volume during HUT. Splanchnic emptying in LBNP models regional vascular changes during hemorrhage. Splanchnic filling may limit the ability of the splanchnic bed to respond to thoracic hypovolemia during upright posture.vasoconstriction; splanchnic; blood volume; orthostatic stress; hemorrhage STANDING TRANSLOCATES BLOOD from the central thoracic circulation to the dependent regional circulations, producing ϳ20% reduction in cardiac output. The decrease in cardiac output comprises a 40% decrease in stroke volume associated with reflex tachycardia, increased peripheral resistance, and a generally maintained systolic blood pressure (SBP) with somewhat reduced pulse pressure (PP) while quietly standing (35). Changes in circulatory physiology during head-up tilt (HUT) are said to resemble the changes observed during hypovolemia caused by dehydration or hemorrhage (39, 41).Lower body negative pressure (LBNP; see Refs. 44 -46) has been used as a reversible simulation for hemorrhage (8,30). LBNP has also been used to model orthostatic stress (7) because many of the changes of neurovascular physiology resemble changes during standing or HUT (31). Thus, for example, both HUT and LBNP produce central hypovolemia and comparable unloading of the cardiopulmonary and arterial baroreceptors (9, 19). However, gravitational differences in regional vascular properties have also been noted (21, 24). Thus recent work by Cooke et al. (8) and el Bedawi and Hainsworth (12) has demonstrated that, although LBNP physiology most closely resembles the physiology of acute hemorrhage, it may be incomplete as a model for orthostatic stress, which must prod...