Elsevier

Life Sciences

Volume 47, Issue 13, 1990, Pages 1141-1146
Life Sciences

Caffeine and human cerebral blood flow: A positron emission tomography study

https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3205(90)90174-PGet rights and content

Abstract

Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to quantify the effect of caffeine on whole brain and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) in humans. A mean dose of 250 mg of caffeine produced approximately a 30% decrease in whole brain CBF; regional differences in caffeine effect were not observed. Pre-caffeine CBF strongly influenced the magnitude of the caffeine-induced decrease. Caffeine decreased paCO2 and increased systolic blood pressure significantly; the change in paCO2 did not account for the change in CBF. Smaller increases in diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, plasma epinephrine and norephinephrine, and subjectively reported anxiety were also observed.

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    This research was supported in part by NINCDS grant number NS 15655 (David E. Kuhl, M.D., Principal Investigator). A portion of this research was reported at the 1988 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

    1

    The authors thank the faculty and staff of the PET Facility, Section of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical Center for their assistance in the completion of this study, and Stephen Schmaltz, M.S., of the University of Michigan Clinical Research Center for his statistical advice.

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