petMAP is a new class of oscillometric Blood Pressure (BP) device with multiple missions for the vet hospital.  petMAP's missions include anesthesia, since it works very well there, but it is especially helpful for routine BP measurement of awake animals for the diagnosis of hypertension and for following up on its treatment. This can be done in the exam room or perhaps even in the waiting room with the owner holding/calming the animal, or in the animal’s carrier without the animal’s knowledge (“stealth BP”, watch the video at www.petmap.com). Thus petMAP’s portability, ease of use, and accuracy in awake dogs/cats is adding a dimension to BP measurement not easily achieved previously with Doppler and the larger oscillometric devices.
 

 Oscillometric blood pressure is determined based on arterial wall pulsations. The re-entry of blood into the arteries occluded by the cuff makes the wall of the arteries expand or “pulse”. These pulsations travel through the soft tissue to the surface of the limb where they are detected by the cuff and analyzed by the microprocessor. This analysis provides systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure readings along with heart rate.

 

View abstracts on petMAP's accuracy.  petMAP Manual states “…….. has been optimized for accuracy by comparison to intra-arterial BP measurements in dogs and cats…..”. BP is displayed within +/- 2 mmHg. This does not mean however that every reading displayed by the petMAP will be within those limits of display accuracy. BP changes more than that each time the animal breathes, but the optimizations built into petMAP for species and cuff site have been developed to make the petMAP correlate with simultaneously measured intra-arterial BP better than previous generations of BP devices. No device will ever read the BP perfectly since the BP is always changing with each heart beat, particularly if the animal is not totally relaxed.
 

 Dr. Maynard (Mike) Ramsey, M.D., Ph.D., the inventor of petMAP and a leader in blood pressure measurement device development, has extensive animal research experience. During the development of the petMAP product, he performed many animal BP comparisons in the laboratory of a well respected researcher at the University of Georgia Vet School. Based on those cat and dog experiments, Dr. Ramsey developed algorithms for both species and cuff site optimization to provide petMAP the best possible correlation with directly measured intra-arterial blood pressure (“the gold standard”). The result of these optimizations is that the BP measured with a petMAP will typically be 10-20% higher than those measured with other oscillometric devices and with Doppler devices. If the user wishes un-optimized readings, the BP can be displayed without optimization by pressing the mode switch repeatedly until both the species and the cuff site LEDs are extinguished. The readings thus displayed are un-optimized.
View abstracts on petMAP's accuracy.
 

 As suggested above, providing the user the ability to select the species (dog or cat) and the cuff site (forearm,tail or hind foot) while using the petMAP is unique and significantly improves the accuracy when petMAP readingsare compared to direct intra-arterial pressure measurements. While taking BP in companion animals is both a science and an art, having specific optimizations for species and cuff site strengthens the scientific side of the requirements for accurate measurements. Being specific by setting both the species and cuff site location gives a much improved correlation with intra-arterial BP and hence the BP displayed is useful for diagnosis or treatment evaluation. We know getting good BP readings is difficult, so we want to make sure if the vet or tech is going to the trouble of getting BP, it is as accurate as possible. The best accuracy is achieved by 1) using the proper cuff size, 2) the proper settings for species and cuff site, and 3) by using the nominal session BP function which combines into one display, the BP reading most representative of the measurement session.
 

 The proper size cuff must be applied snuggly to the appropriate limb, preferentially on the forearm; the tail is next preference and the hind foot is least desirable. The inflated portion of the cuff is the area which provides the oscillometric signal. There is no sensor, per se, so making sure the cuff is the correct size and fits snugly is all that is required. One of the big advantages of the petMAP is there is no need to try to find “the artery” or to shave the limb or to apply ultrasonic coupling gel as must be done with the Doppler method.
 

 For starters, it is better to go substantially above the estimated systolic pressure, say 40-50 mmHg. In the clinic, animal’s BPs are often high due to stress, so inflating to 220-250 initially is a good place to start. After a few determinations, if the animal’s systolic pressure appears to be in the 160-180 range, pumping to 200-220 the next time should be sufficient. If in doubt, use a higher value for pump-up, since the small cuffs pumped to high pressures are not uncomfortable to most animals. When inflated smoothly with one continuous squeeze of the bulb over a 1-3 second period, most animals don’t even notice that the cuff is inflated. Human BP cuffs are substantially more uncomfortable than the small ones used on animals.
 

 Battery life is dependent on several factors such as LED brightness settings, use of automatic valve purge frequency, and use of automatic power shut off. In normal use, new alkaline batteries will last over 200 readings, fully charged NiMH batteries will provide over 500 readings, and Lithium batteries will provide over 1000 readings. These numbers assume that the unit is powered off manually after a measurement session and that the LED brightness is roughly midway between bright and dim.  PetMAP places severe drain on its batteries and testers do not test batteries under conditions of severe drain, and hence give a false indication of freshness. If in doubt, use new batteries.
 

We have larger cuffs that are optionally available in 6.5, 8.0, 10.0, and 13.0 cm sizes.