The Physiology of the Renal Circulation
Burton-Opitz and Lucas (1911) were the first to note the striking constancy of renal blood How in the face of wide variation in perfusion pressure-a phenomenon which struck them as remarkable in the light of their earlier demonstration that the renal vessels were capable of intense vasoconstriction, when the sympathetic nerves were stimulated. Rein (1931) confirmed that observation and extended it by contrasting the responses of the kidney’s blood vessels to those of the femoral, mesenteric and carotid vascular beds, which were influenced much more by changing perfusion pressure. The ‘autoregulation’ of renal blood flow despite changes in arterial blood pressure has had too much impact on current thinking: the concept, unfortunately, has gradually broadened so that a consensus of Opinion today might indicate the belief that the renal circulation is relatively autonomous and that renal perfusion is fixed. In fact renal perfusion shows wide variation in response to external s