Chronic Monitoring Facilities at the Medical College of Wisconsin
Researchers in the Department of Physiology have full access to MCW's Chronic Animal Monitoring Facility (CMF), which provides the facilities, equipment, computer hardware and software, and service and support necessary for short term or continuous 24-hour-a-day measurement of hemodynamic variables from research animals in their home cages.
This unique facility includes six sound-attenuated recording rooms, each equipped with specially designed cages for rats and mice which meet all AAALAC requirements, appropriate transducers for measuring pressure, flow, heart rate, EKG, weight, and temperature, systems for delivering drugs by infusion, swivels for making hydraulic and electrical connections to animals, computers and software for data collection, and network connections for remote access. New hardware including caging units, calibration devices, and hindlimb stimulators has been recently designed, built and installed in our facility. Software for data collection and analysis has also been upgraded and ported to a Microsoft environment.
Because collection of data by these machines plays an essential role in the 24-hour day-to-day operation of many experiments, maintenance and upkeep is a high priority. The facilities for chronic monitoring are constantly maintained and upgraded by personnel in the Electronics Shop.