New Ugo Basile Plantar Test Instrument

Nov. 23, 2010 - PRLog -- Established in 1963, Ugo Basile (http://www.ugobasile.com/) is a manufacturer of research instrumentation for Life Sciences: from Pain Reaserch to Animal Pharmacology, Physiology, Respiration and Behavioral Research on Laboratory Animals.

The new Plantar Test Instrument -Hargreave’s Method- (http://www.ugobasile.com/catalogue/category/pain_and_inflammation/product/37370_plantar_test__hargreaves_apparatus_.html) measures response to infrared heat stimulus.

Focus the infrared source below the Plantar surface and with the press of a button … latency to paw withdrawal and infrared intensity are recorded automatically (i.e. no manual scoring!).

Classically the measurement of acute nociceptive thermal threshold in laboratory animals has primarily relied upon the tail flick and hot plate methods. Although both methods are still used frequently in pharmacological studies, they are not without limitation. In addition, neither method has been extended to investigating behavioural responses to hyperalgesia.

The Plantar Test represents a remarkable advance in methodology, as it combines the best features of all other methods of measuring pain sensitivity. Unique to the Plantar Test, the animal is unrestrained during experiments. Moreover, time latency is recorded automatically by a fiber optic sensor, without having to rely on the experimenter observation of the animal behaviour.

When the animal feels pain and withdraws its paw, the I.R. source switches off and the reaction time counter stops. The withdrawal latency to the nearest 0.1 s is automati-cally determined.

Data appear on the front panel and may be exported to a memory stick, or to computer via USB; software is included.