Rodent General Anesthesia Suitable for Measurement of Experimental Invasive Hemodynamics

In cases of experimentally performed invasive rodent cardiovascular measurements, selected general anesthesia for a non-recovery procedure and its proper pain control plays a fundamental role in obtaining good data recordings. Rodent anesthesia is challenging for several reasons including high metabolic rate with elevated possibility of hypothermia and hypoglycemia during the procedure, large body surface area to adjust drug medication and anticipate drug clearance. In this review article, suitable analgesia, and anesthesia to collect rodent hemodynamics is discussed with examples of commonly used methods and anesthetic combinations to assess rodent hemodynamics. In case of injectable anesthesia, hemodynamic parameters should be measured when HR and mean arterial pressure (MAP) becomes stable. If re-injection is necessary, re-evaluation of HR and MAP is crucial for data integrity. Likewise, to safeguard data quality, longitudinal collection of HRs, HR variability, MAP and body temperature should be provided. For this reason, creation of a rodent hemodynamic anesthesia protocol might be necessary. In many cases, to refine surgical anesthetic protocol suitable for hemodynamic study, pilot experiments might be required to find the correct dose, and to probe for adequacy and duration of anesthesia, anticipating technical and procedural problems. Additionally, ensuring repeatability of the hemodynamic exam, selected experimental anesthetics should not be extensively metabolized. If metabolized, the effects on central and peripheral hemodynamics (HR, pre, afterload and contractility) should be well-known and documented.