Noninvasive Blood Pressure Monitoring in Mice

Noninvasive blood pressure (NIBP) measurements were performed daily throughout the noise exposure regimen (CODA 2, Kent Scientific, Torrington, CT, USA) [4 (link),5 (link)]. Baseline measurement was done 1 day before noise exposure started, and then blood pressure was measured daily during the noise exposure regimen (see Figure 1). Animals were placed in restrainers on a preheated plate (32 °C). The CODA System comprises two tail-cuffs for the measurement of blood pressure. An occlusion cuff and a volume–pressure recording cuff (VPR) were placed on the tail of the mice to measure volume–pressure changes in the tail vein upon occlusion and release. Data were acquired by CODA Data Acquisition Software. All measurements of the finally recorded NIBP values were preceded by three training sessions to acclimate the animal to the general procedure before the measurement that was used for the final dataset. The mean values of 10 NIBP readings were used for each animal’s daily value.