Abstract
A method which enables reliable measurements of red cell deformability in whole blood to be performed is presented. It is based on the Nuclepore filtration method described byReid et al. (1976). Its reliability was much improved, obtaining an accuracy of within 5% by a technique to remove air bubbles trapped in the filter pores, which caused the poor reproducibility observed before. Simple analyses of the flow characteristics of whole blood and the haematocrit dependence of whole blood passage time were given to eliminate the effect of transient pore blockings of white cells and the contribution of different haematocrit in the whole blood passage time. A mean pore passage time of single red cells is obtainable as a quantitative index of red cell deformability. Furthermore, a good utilisation was achieved by making full use of electrically operated valves and aspiration pumps. It is possible to repeat measurements at intervals of 3 min. This improved filtration method will be useful for diagnostic purposes since it can avoid artefacts caused by artificial treatments added on blood samples and time changes after blood sampling.
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Kikuchi, Y., Arai, T. & Koyama, T. Improved filtration method for red cell deformability measurement. Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. 21, 270–276 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02478493
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02478493