Share this“My telemetry is fantastic, but designing the architecture to make best use of it is another matter!”
If the line above has a familiar ring to it, then this article is aimed directly at you. It describes what you should know before you design, build, and equip your facility to conduct telemetry experiments The importance of good architecture is greater when the experiments involve a large experimental area and/or large populations. In-depth, case-by-case design is needed to exploit existing data and network management technologies.
Trends
Setups based on telemetry systems have become widely established in safety pharmacology and toxicology studies. There are obvious advantages associated with data acquisition from conscious, freely moving animals. Furthermore, in recent years, there has been a shift towards the use of non-invasive telemetry as an alternative to, or in combination with, invasive telemetry (use of implants). Laboratories are increasingly recognizing the distinctive advantages offered by non-invasive systems:
- - No adverse physiological impact, costs, or down-time related to surgery;
- - No recurring costs; and
- - The ability to measure multi-lead ECG, activity, skin temperature, and respiration.
There is also increasing demand for large-scale facilities for running safety pharmacology or toxicology studies. Standard studies routinely involve from four to forty subjects. Large animal facilities with a capacity of 200 to 400 animals are designed for running several small, medium, and large studies simultaneously. It is becoming common to have as many as 100 to 150 subjects in four to eight studies being run simultaneously.
The highest degree of flexibility, and thus of productivity, is achieved if non-invasive telemetry is possible from any pen. Each subject can then be allocated to a particular pen according to other requirements, without the additional concern of whether telemetry is available in that pen.