Abstract
This paper reports on a new microscopic method for measuring the deformability of erythrocytes. A 0.3 ml specimen of capillary blood was washed and a portion of the erythrocyte suspension was placed on a microscope slide. After sedimentation the erythrocytes adhered to the glass surface as a monolayer. The slide was placed in a flow chamber and the adhered erythrocytes were deformed due to the shear force caused by the introduction of a transverse flow. During deformation transmission of monochromatic light and length to width ratio of the deformed cells were measured. There was a positive relationship between light transmission and erythrocyte shape change. This new method was tested by measuring the effect of changes in shear stress, pH and osmotic pressure on erythrocyte deformability. It was concluded that this method is adequately sensitive to measure the influence of low shear stresses and variation of pH and osmotic pressure on the deformability of erythrocytes and was not influenced by the presence of white cells or platelets.
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