Measurement of erythrocyte deformability by two laser diffraction methods

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Wang, X. | Zhao, H.^; | Zhuang, F.Y. | Stoltz, J. F.

Affiliations: Hemorheology–Angiohematology, LEMTA, UMR CNRS 7563, 2 av. de la Forêt de Haye, 54500 Vandoeuvre‐lès‐Nancy, France | Research Institute China–Japan Friendship Hospital, 100029 Beijing, China

Abstract: The aim of this work is to study the deformability of red blood cells (RBC) by two laser diffraction methods: the Laser‐assisted Optical Rotational Cell Analyser (LORCA, Mechatronics, Amsterdam, Netherlands) and a Shear Stress Diffractometer (RHEODYN SSD, Myrenne, Roetgen, Germany). Experiments were carried out on 46 healthy human subjects. The elongation index EI of normal and hardened RBCs (obtained by heating blood at 49{}^\circC or by incubating RBCs in solutions of diamide) was measured. The results showed that the standard deviations of the experimental data for normal RBCs were relatively small, especially at high shear stresses (more than 3.0 Pa), but higher than those reported before. Some correlations between the results given by the two instruments were also found. It should be noted that for hardened RBCs, the standard deviations of the measurements were important compared with the mean values in the two instruments.

Keywords: RBCs deformation, laser diffraction, shear stress

Journal: Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, vol. 21, no. 3-4, pp. 291-295, 1999