The relationship between central haemodynamics and vascular and metabolic parameters in skeletal muscle was studied in dogs subjected to controlled haemorrhagic hypotension and treated with cumulative doses of methylprednisolone (4-32 mg x kg-1), (or saline in the control group), followed by phenoxybenzamine. There were no significant haemodynamic or metabolic changes between the groups during the injections of steroid or saline. The alpha-adrenergic receptor blockade caused, as found earlier, a pronounced vasodilation in the steroid group, which was parallelled by an increase in muscle blood flow in the same order of magnitude. There was no clearcut relationship between metabolic and vascular effects in the groups. Despite the significant difference in blood flow between the groups after phenoxybenzamine, only small and insignificant differences were seen in muscle metabolites, with the exception of muscle lactate which showed higher values in the steroid group. The study provides further evidence in support of the hypothesis that the haemodynamic effects of the combination of methylprednisolone and phenoxybenzamine are of neurogenic origin.