Background Cerebral autoregulation is generally considered to maintain cerebral blood flow (CBF) if mean arterial pressure (MAP) is between 60 and 150 mmHg. Yet, it is controversial whether there is a plateau for CBF. Thus, blood velocity of the middle cerebral artery (MCA Vmean), as an index of CBF, is affected by pharmacological changes in MAP between approximately 40-125 mmHg. In contrast, internal carotid artery blood flow is unaffected by a moderate decrease in blood pressure.