Rat Bile Sampling Plus Blood Sampling

Use this system for short-term bile collection where replacement salts are not indicated but a venous or arterial catheter is placed for intermittent manual blood sampling outside of the cage.

During surgery, connect the bile duct catheter to the blue port of an implanted three-channel Vascular Access Button™, the duodenal catheter to the white port and the venous or arterial catheter to the red port. Prime then install the VABR3L to connect the blue and white ports so that bile can flow in an extracorporeal loop while the animal recovers from surgery.

To collect bile and sample blood, connect a three-channel VAB™ tether that connects the blue port to a primed line through a swivel to a collection vial at animal level (so that bile can flow at its natural rate without fighting gravity), leaves the white duodenal port unconnected, and connects the venous or arterial catheter to a PinPort at the top of the tether where blood samples can be collected manually without touching the animal. The blood line uses PE/PVC tubing to prevent evaporation which can draw blood into the catheter.

Alternatively, the blood sampling line can be run through a two-channel swivel to an automated blood sampler.