Sympathetic outflows from cervical spinal cord in the dog.

In some dogs there are preganglionic fibers leaving the cervical spinal cord through the ventral roots of the lower cervical nerves. When these fibers are stimulated electrically in the anesthetized dog with skeletal muscle paralysis (induced by decamethonium), the effects are vasoconstriction in the front footpad, cardiac acceleration and augmentation, and a rise in arterial blood pressure.