The influence of restraint on blood pressure in the rat
Date
1998
Authors
Irvine, R.
White, J.
Chan, R.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods, 1998; 38(3):157-167
Statement of Responsibility
Rodney J. Irvine, Jason White, Raymond Chan
Conference Name
Abstract
We examined the influence of procedures used in blood pressure measurement on blood pressure and the effects of antihypertensive agents. Subjects were spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and their Wistar/Kyoto (WKY) controls. Blood pressure was recorded by telemetry. Twenty-four h baseline pressure were measured, and the effect of minor handling on blood pressure and heart rate was examined. The influence of restraint such as is used for tail-cuff blood pressures was examined. The effects of three different antihypertensive drugs was also examined in the SHR. In the home-cage environment, the SHRs showed higher systolic blood pressures, but had similar hypertensive responses to minor handling as the WKYs. Both strains had elevated heart rate and blood pressure when restrained in the manner used for tail-cuff readings. The antihypertensive effects of captopril and losartan in the SHR were unchanged when the animals were restrained but the hypotensive effect of hydralazine was greater. These results confirm that significant changes in heart rate and blood pressure can occur as a result of the minor procedures frequently used in blood pressure recording in both SHR and WKY rats. This suggests that telemetry may have significant advantages as a method for continuous blood pressure monitoring. The pharmacological profile of antihypertensive drugs may well be different in animals where telemetry is employed and are not subject to the stresses involved in previous methods of monitoring blood pressure.