Relationship between central hemodynamics and regional blood flow in normal subjects and in patients with congestive heart failure.

Central and regional (hepatic, renal, and limb) hemodynamic data are presented for a normal population (n = 16) and for a group of patients with congestive heart failure (n = 64). The patient population represented a wide spectrum of severity of congestive heart failure. Various relationships between central and regional hemodynamics were analyzed. The results indicate that in congestive heart failure blood flow to hepatic, renal, and limb regions is significantly decreased, and that this decrease is proportional and linearly related to the reduction in cardiac output. The vascular resistances of these regions correlated directly with systemic vascular resistance. Changes in renal vascular resistance and renal blood flow became attenuated as the severity of the heart failure advanced from moderate to severe and at higher levels of systemic vascular resistance. There was little to no correlation between systemic blood pressure and liver, kidney, and limb blood flow for the range of systemic pressures studied.