ABSTRACT
We are conducting the studies of a temperature-sensitive cardiac pacemaker in which the pacing rate is controlled through the blood temperature in the right atrium. 1,2 One phase of the work involves the determination of the correlation between heart rate and right atrial blood temperature. The relations between these two parameters were determined previously in anaesthetized mongrel dogs. 2 It seems, however, to be both essential and desirable to obtain these parameters in unanaesthetized, free-roaming subjects. Although treadmills have commonly been used to measure such physiological parameters, this requires training each dog to run smoothly and is rather troublesome. In recent years, biotelemetry has been used extensively and a wide variety of physiological information has been obtained in research and clinical investigations. 3 Although it is impossible to mention all the workers and their relevant works, it is worthwhile reviewing briefly some early and recent works. In this chapter we describe a microcomputer-based heart rate and blood temperature telemetry system in dogs, after reviewing the existing systems of medical radiotelemetry .
