Guidelines for assessing ventricular pressure-volume relationships in rodents.

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Physiology
• Animal Models in Research
• Cardiac Function Assessment

Background:

• Pressure-volume (PV) catheterization is the gold standard for in vivo cardiac function assessment in animal studies.
• Existing PV studies in rodents exhibit significant heterogeneity in methodology, impacting reliability and reproducibility.
• Variations exist in protocol design, anesthesia, cardiac loading, data analysis, and reporting of load-independent indices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish consensus guidelines for performing, analyzing, and interpreting PV studies in rodent models.
• To address the heterogeneity in current PV study methodologies to enhance reliability and reproducibility.
• To provide recommendations for both open- and closed-chest left and right ventricle PV studies.

Main Methods:

• Review of recent methodological reporting in rodent PV studies.
• Expert consensus on best practices for PV catheterization (conductance and admittance) in rodents.
• Recommendations cover volume calibration, anesthesia, cardiac loading, derivation of load-independent indices, data analysis, and visualization.

Main Results:

• Identified critical areas of methodological variation in rodent PV studies.
• Proposed standardized steps for high-quality PV data acquisition and analysis.
• Emphasized the importance of addressing between- and within-animal variation.

Conclusions:

• Adherence to consensus guidelines will improve the reliability and reproducibility of rodent PV studies.
• Standardized methodologies facilitate better mechanistic insights into cardiovascular disease.
• This paper aims to align the field with best practices in surgical, analytical, and reporting standards.