rents afer (R of Te feedback © Pe voniolle frodin ensecl ab a Je4 echo Sulake ot olen, He fone of Hua oderéler Sreolt, res ha6, Renal Hemodynamics and Oxygen Consumption ‘Tubuloglomerular feedback and autoregulation may have evel to subserve the critical funetion of salt balance (see Chap. 7, Renal Regulation of Na” Balance). That is, as snGFR increases therefore an abnormally large amount of NaCl is filtered, this f might be quickly sensed at the JGA and corrected through a n tive feedback loop that decreases the snGFR. The concomitant taregulation of RRF (Rig 6-4) could be a mere by-product of mechanism by which the kidneys maintain salt balance; or, sin the rate of plasma flaw through glomerular capillaries ean in determine the rate of glomerular filtration (see Chap. 3, Forees Involved in Glomerular Ultrafiltration), autoregulation RBF might be an integral part of autoregulation of GFR. RENAL OXYGEN CONSUMPTION According to the Fick principle, the oxygen consumption of an yan, Voy, is related directly to the rave of blood flow to that or Q, and to the difference in oxygen content between the a Cap,, and vein, Cvo,, of that organ Vo,= QCA, = Cv,) (6-2) In most organs, such as skeletal muscle, the resting oxygen © sumption remains constant as the blood flow to that organ is ducod. Consequently, the arteriovenous (a v) oxygen content ference rises in proportion to the decrease in flow (Eq. 6-2). heart is an exception, since even at rest the coronary a-v o difference is very high, approximately 11 vol%. Therefore, coronary blood flow decreases, the oxygen supply to the m cardium is deficient, For this reason, the heart is known as a f limited organ. There are two seeming paradoxes about renal oxygen con: tion: (1) Even though this consumption per weight of renal tis is greater than that of any other organ save the heart, the a-v oxygen difference is only about 1.7 vol%, probably the low any organ. (2) Despite the very low a-v oxygen difference, the neys do not initially extract more oxygen from each um of blood: ronal blood flow is reducod. The solution to these paradoxes is: lustrated in Figure 6-6; it involves the fact that the main renal nirement for oxidative energy is the tubular reabsorption sodium,