Ceranapril and cerebral blood flow autoregulation.

Objective: To investigate the effect of the new angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor ceranapril (1 mg/kg) on the cerebral blood flow (CBF) autoregulation in normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR).

Design: Sixteen WKY rats and 16 SHR were given ceranapril 1 mg/ml intravenously and compared with two untreated control groups (n = 16). The rats were furthermore divided into subgroups of eight to study the upper and lower limits of autoregulation separately.