Non-Invasive Blood Pressure Measurement

Volume-Pressure Recording of Bloodpressure

To achieve reliable data, the blood pressure of small animals has to be measured when they are fully conscious  as any medical tranquilizer alters the relevant pressure values. To achieve this, we provide a dedicated plethysmography technique that has been recommended by the American Heart Association.

In this tail-cuff approach, animals are restrained in a calm state without need of any anesthesia. This lack of further manipulations of the animal is one of the advantages of non-invasive tail-cuff methods and enables high-throughput analyses such as mutagenesis and genetic cross screens  ^[1]_.

We provide non-invasive measurement of small-animal blood pressure using a dedicated tail-cuff system, the CODA system by Kent Scientific.

The CODA system is based on two tail-cuffs, one for restriction and controlled re-initiation of bloodflow (occlusion-cuff), the other for volume-pressure recordings (VPR-cuff). Each is controlled by a programmable software unit allowing fully automated measurements of systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

The animal will be held in a stress-minimized and warm environment during the recordings. This is done by dedicated animal restrainers, fitted for mice and small rats of various body weights.