Vascular dopplers: a new way of recording cardiac parameters in envenomed organisms

Measuring cardiac activity in experimental animals for research purposes has great relevance and obvious implications for investigating venom actions and toxicity. Previous techniques have been confined to vertebrate models as traditional heart recording apparatuses require a closed vascular system to be effective. A new technique utilizing a Vascular Doppler placed external to the cardiac muscle was trialled in order to record previously undocumented invertebrate heart activity of envenomed animals. Combined with Avisoft sound collection software, this technique was found to be successful in recording cardiac parameters such as heart rate and extent of contraction in an invertebrate model. This method is advantageous as it is not only inexpensive and easily portable but allows for specific venom actions to be investigated in a wider variety of previously unreportable, but ecologically significant animals.