Validation in awake rats of a tail-cuff method for measuring systolic pressure.

Bu~~AG, RUBEN D. Validation in awake rats of a tail-cuf method for measuring systolic pressure. J. Appl. Physiol. 34(2) : 279-282. 1973.-To determine why results of recent studies on applicability of the tail-cuff method to awake rats have been conflicting, arterial pres-sures were measured under various conditions. A Doppler ultra-sonic flowmeter was used to detect blood flow changes occurring in rats ’ tails during cuff inflation and deflation. Simultaneous record-ing of arterial pressures from different sites showed that systolic pressure in the carotid artery approximates tail-cuff values more closely than that in the lower abdominal aorta or iliac artery. Tail cuffs 15 mm long gave the most accurate readings; determinations with shorter cuffs were falsely high while those with longer ones were falsely low. Pressures measured in unanesthetized normo-tensive and hypertensive rats by using a Doppler flowmeter to-gether with a 15-mm tail cuff were the same as those recorded con-currently from a carotid artery. Correlation between direct and