Evaluation of catheter-manometer systems for adequate intravascular blood pressure measurements in small animals.

Various catheter-manometer systems possible for intravascular blood pressure measurments on rats have been elaborated and tested in vitro and in vivo. Using a pressure-step calibrator, it was observed from in vitro studies that microtransducers had superior frequency response compared to conventional transducers. Of the catheters tested, Pe-90 tapered to a 40 mm tip with an inner diameter of 0.3 mm had the best frequency response as judged from fall and settling times. Because of the damping effect, tapering increased fall time to 1.8 ms, which was still quite acceptable. By the same token settling time was minimized to 22.4 ms. With a special calculation method the theoretical percentile fault of the recordings was estimated to be 9.66%. When the measurement error was calculated from the actual in vivo recordings, it was found to be no more than 2.7%. These results show that the technique described is adequate for continuous intravascular blood pressure recordings on small animals. Finally it is emphasized that careful handling of the catheters and avoidance of stopcocks and air bubbles are essential for obtaining accurate and reproducible values.