Development of a wearable pulse oximeter device measuring SpO2, heart rate and respiratory rate from conscious and unrestrained rats

Abstract

In toxicity studies, one of the core endpoint is clinical observation including vital signs (VSs). Measurement of VSs over time has already been realized in safety pharmacology in drug development, but not in toxicity studies on general chemical substances. We believe that simple VSs measurement technique can achieve both refinement of toxicity evaluation and reduction of the number of animals. In this study, we developed a wearable pulse oximeter for rats to measure SpO2, heart rate and respiratory rate. We succeeded to measure these VSs from conscious and unrestrained rats.