Zebrafish Electrocardiography (ECG): A Minimally Invasive Assay to Evaluate Cardiac Function

Abstract

Source: Zhao, Y., et al. In Vivo Surface Electrocardiography for Adult Zebrafish. J. Vis. Exp. (2019).

This video shows how to perform electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) measurements, a test which measures the electrical activity of the heart, on a zebrafish.

Protocol

This protocol is an excerpt from Zhao et al, In Vivo Surface Electrocardiography for Adult Zebrafish, J. Vis. Exp. (2019).

All experiments in this study were conducted in accordance with the US National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. All animal protocols in this study were approved by the UCLA Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

1. Anesthesia induction

1. Prepare immersion anesthesia for pain control and fish immobilization to avoid motion artifacts during ECG data acquisition. Most laboratories use immersion trica....

Results

Figure 1: Minimally invasive in vivo ECG recording protocol. A schematic flow chart illustrates four critical action steps in conducting an in vivo ECG interrogation: induce anesthesia, place ECG lead electrodes, record ECG, and analyze the ECG recordings.

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Culture dishes	Fisher Scientific	FB087571	100 mm x 20 mm
Dumont Forceps	Fine Sciense Tools	11253-20	0.1 x 0.06 mm
FE136 Animal Bio Amp	AD Instruments	FE231
Iris Forceps	Fine Sciense Tools	11064-07	0.6 x 0.5 mm
LabChart 8 Pro	AD Instruments		Software with ECG Module
Needle electrodes for Animal Bio Amp	AD Instruments	MLA1213	29 gauge
Plastic Disposable Transfer Pipets	Fisher Scientific	13-669-12	6 in., 1.2 mL
PowerLab 4/35	AD Instruments	4//35
Tricaine (Ethyl 3-aminobenzoate methanesulfonate)	Sigma	E10521-10G	MS-222