Direct Percutaneous Determination of Systemic Blood Pressure and Production of Renal Hypertension in the Cat.

The percutaneous, direct method for determination of the blood pressure was applied in the cat, without and with anesthesia. In one group of 5 males and 5 females, single determinations were made, to determine the feasibility of the method. In these animals the blood pressure was measured by 2 means—direct mean pressure with a mercury manometer, and systolic and dia-stolic pressures with a strain-gauge manometer. In this group the single pressures were generally high, and usually higher in the males. In another group, 2 males and 2 females, determinations were made weekly for 7 to 24 weeks. In these cats the initial pressures were also high, but similar in both sexes, but, in all the animals, gradually decreased and became stabilized at a lower level in about 4 weeks. In one male and in one female the production of unilateral renal ischemia, due to moderate constriction of the main renal artery, was followed by the development of hypertension, and, as in other species, the exclusion of the ischemic kidney of one of the hypertensive cats resulted in a prompt return of the blood pressure to the lowest prehypertensive level.