Continuous blood pressure measurement in rats with aortic baroreceptor deafferentation

The purpose of this study was to determine if once-daily arterial pressure measurements are a reliable estimate of actual time-averaged arterial pressure in neurogenic hypertensive rats. Male rats were subjected to either aortic baroreceptor deafferentation (ABD, n = 10) or sham operation (SO, n = 10). One to 3 mo later, arterial pressure (AP) was recorded from a chronic indwelling catheter in each rat for 72 continuous hours. Subsequently, AP was determined once a day (10- to 30-min recording periods) in each rat for an additional 3 consecutive days. Continuous recording yielded an average mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 104 +/- 2 mmHg in SO rats and an average mean MAP of 120 +/- 3 mmHg in ABD rats. Standard deviation of MAP measured every 5 min for 24 consecutive hours (as an index of pressure lability) was 8.0 +/- 0.4 mmHg in SO rats and 14.4 +/- 1.3 mmHg in ABD rats. Both of the above differences were statistically significant (P less than 0.05). The average MAP from daily measurements in the same rats was 107 +/- 3 mmHg in SO rats and 124 +/- 3 mmHg in ABD rats. Average pressure values were not statistically different for the two measurement techniques in either group of rats. Overall, there existed a significant correlation (r = 0.64, P less than 0.01) between MAP measured continuously and daily in the 20 rats studied. We conclude that daily direct measurement of MAP in conscious ABD rats yields a satisfactory estimate of actual time-averaged MAP in these rats despite their markedly increased MAP lability.