Non-Invasive ECG

Electrocardiography (ECG)

Muscle contraction is based on the coordinated stimulation of muscle cells, the myocytes. This stimulation generates an electric current throughout the muscle that can be measured on the body’s surface. An electrocardiogram (ECG) can be recorded and used for the examination of electrophysical state and function of the heart. This has made ECG a central tool in the diagnosis of cardiac diseases such as arrhythmias and infarcts.

While ECG recordings can be made on conscious human patients, small animals usually need to be anesthetized to calm them down. This entails additional expenditure and results in an ECG that does not record the physiological state of the organism. Additionally, attaching classical ECG-electrodes is a minimal but invasive procedure that may cause pain to the animal and prevents multiple ECG-recordings in a subject over short time intervals.

Infarct ECG

Additionally, attaching classical ECG-electrodes is a minimal but invasive procedure that may cause pain to the animal and prevents multiple ECG-recordings in a subject over short time intervals.

Non-invasive ECG-platform with dedicated restrainers

To overcome these issues, we provide ECG measurements using an innovative ECG-platform (by EMKA Technologies) that allows signal recording in fully conscious animals and is absolutely non-invasive. It has never been easier to get representative ECGs of small animals such as mice and rats without extraordinary expenditures in terms of subject preparation, animal welfare approval etc..

ECG of a heart with Block Bundle Branch

Non-invasive small animal ECG is based on a special system to protect the health of the animal. The animal is put into a dedicated restrainer positioned on the ECG-measurement device. The animal’s paws touch four metallic patches on the bottom of the device, establishing the electric contact needed for ECG measurement. No additional electrode gel is needed. The animal is then allowed to calm down before the ECG signal is recorded. This usually takes only a few minutes.

ECG of a heart with AV-Block Type III

The ECG-signal is recorded in real-time and post-processed by high-throughput analysis software (ECGauto, EMKA). Specific libraries of ECG-patterns can be compiled and matched against the ECG. Characteristic parameters of electrophysiological function are then scaled and calculated on the basis of matched ECG-curves, providing higher reproducibility of the derived values.

We also provide analyses of heart rate variability (HRV). Since this involves no anesthesia or harm to the animal in this non-invasive approach, ECG-data can be collected over extended time periods. So this system is adequate to pre-screen animals that may undergo telemetric analysis.