The principal purpose of this work was to evaluate the applicability of pulse testing as a technique for the experimental determination of the dynamic properties of fluid-filled catheters. This procedure requires that the system be excited with only a single appropriate pressure pulse at the inlet end of the catheter. Time histories of measures of inlet and outlet pressures may be converted into frequency response form, via a Fourier transformation computation routine. Dynamic parameters may then be readily obtained from graphical presentations of such information or by other methods. An additional objective was to determine the effects of leads of various lengths between the end of the catheter and the pressure sensor, since this is the arrangement commonly used in clinical practice. Lead lengths from 0 to 83 cm were used. I n all cases the dynamic behavior could be related to the response of second-order linear differential equations with parameters dependent upon catheter type and lead length. For the systems studied, damping factors varied from 0.07 to 0.7 and undamped natural frequencies varied from 18 to 42 rad/s, with no significant dependency upon temperature in the region from 27 to 38 O C . As lead length was increased beyond about 65 cm, behavior became increasingly independent of the specific catheter type and more dependent on length of iead. Simplicity and ease of execution, relative ease of data reduction, and extensive documentation of successful applications make the pulse technique an attractive method for determining the dynamic performance of liquid-filled catheter systems.