Regional Gastric Mucosal Blood Flow Measurements by Hydrogen Gas Clearance in the Anesthetized Rat and Rabbit

Hydrogen gas clearance using 3% hydrogen in air and platinum contact electrodes was employed for measuring antral and corpus mucosal blood flow in anesthetized animals. Significantly greater antral than corpus mucosal blood flow was consistently demonstrated. Corpus but not antral mucosal blood flow showed a significant dose-related increase with intravenous pentagastrin. Vasopressin induced a significant dose-related decrease in both antral and corpus mucosal blood flow. Simultaneous measurement of basal corpus mucosal blood flow by hydrogen gas clearance and of gastric mucosal blood flow by aminopyrine clearance gave similar values, but the changes with intravenous pentagastrin or vasopressin measured by aminopyrine clearance were of a much higher order of magnitude. Hydrogen gas clearance, however, reflected changes in left gastric artery blood flow much more closely than did aminopyrine clearance. Therefore, we conclude that the hydrogen gas clearance technique as described is valid for measuring regional gastric mucosal blood flow. It is safe and has potential application in human studies.