Wireless DBS and Blood Pressure Measurement System for Experiments with Animals

The deep-brain stimulation (DBS) treats symptoms of various movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, or generalized dystonia. Pre-clinical research is performed on animal models, mainly small rodents or nonhuman primates. Arterial hypertension, a condition of failed nervous regulation, could be treated by applying electric pulses to modulate the function of regulatory centers in the brain. A novel combined device of the electric pulse generator and invasive blood pressure measurement system is needed to evaluate the DBS effectiveness in hemodynamic control. The device should (1) be small enough to be carried by the animal and not interfere with daily animal routines, (2) should be energy efficient, (3) should record and transmit hemodynamic high-fidelity data wirelessly, (4) should have real-time closed-loop stimulation capability, (6) should be remotely reprogrammable for different pulse widths, amplitudes and shapes. This paper presents the development of a low-cost wireless DBS and blood pressure monitoring system and demonstrates an example of its effectiveness while experimenting with a laboratory rat model. This device can be used as a novel solution to study the effects of electric stimulation on various brain targets of hemodynamic importance in freely moving laboratory animals.