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Animal physiology

Vital signs without handling or animal prep

Lab Animal volume 48, pages 144–145 (2019)Cite this article

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A potential new method for non-invasively monitoring physiological parameters in small animals takes advantage of radio frequency near-field coherent sensing technology

The assessment of physiological parameters, such as respiration rate, heart rate, blood pressure, or body temperature, is crucial in small animal veterinary practice and for many animal experiments. Monitoring vital signs is important during anesthesia as well as the post-surgical recovery phase, and the measurements can be used to detect cardiovascular diseases or to assess experimental treatments, e.g. during drug discovery and testing. Physiological parameters are also relevant for refinement research, as changes in these parameters are known to be indicators of stress and pain in animals1.

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References

  1. Arras, M., Rettich, A., Cinelli, P., Kasermann, H. P. & Burki, K. BMC Vet Res 3, 16 (2007).

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  2. Hui, X. & Kan, E. C. Sci Adv 5, eaau0169 (2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Animal Welfare, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Paulin Jirkof

  2. Zurich Integrative Rodent Physiology (ZIRP), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Petra Seebeck

Authors
  1. Paulin Jirkof
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  2. Petra Seebeck
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Correspondence to Paulin Jirkof.

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Jirkof, P., Seebeck, P. Vital signs without handling or animal prep. Lab Anim 48, 144–145 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-019-0290-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-019-0290-1

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