The nature of cerebral vasospasm.

The article comprises mainly the personal views of the author on the following aspects of cerebral vasospasm: the definition of vasospasm; historical physiological concepts of cerebral bloodflow regulation; relation of spasm development in cerebral arteries to their functional behavior during regulation of cerebral blood flow; the essence of vasospasm from the standpoint of smooth muscle physiology; physiological stimuli involved in its development; the disturbances in plasmatic membrane function and intracellular processes of smooth muscles inducing vasospasm; systems approach to development which may assist in systematization of data and in efficiency and direction of further research.