About increase of aggregation of red cells with an increase of temperature in normal and abnormal blood (i.e. cancer) 1 2

Abstract

Sedimentation and aggregation of red cells were studied in the freshly shed blood, anticoagulated with EDTA, of 88 donors. including cancer and vascular patients. Tests were carried out in Westergren tubes at room temperature and at 37° and 40°C. Aggregation of red cells was estimated from ESR’s corrected for plasma viscosity and adjusted to 30 per cent haematocrit. Sedimentation rates and aggregation of red cells increase at higher temperatures. The degree of this effect depends on the type of disease, on the type of ABO blood group, and on the interplay between contradictory actions of albumin and fibrinogen. A negative correlation between the temperature coefficient of aggregation of red cells and the fibrinogen concentration is shown by patients with vascular diseases and, to a much higher measure, by cancer patients of blood group A only. Temperature coefficient of aggregation of red cells appears to be a much more specific parameter than the aggregation of red cells.