Abstract
The Capillary-Rigidometer allows to obtain time-saving information about the distribution of a large number of single RBC within a cell population. The measuring principle consists in observing the entry process of a single RBC into a glass capillary (inner diameter: 3.5 – 4.0 μm) by recording the conductivity changes of the micropipette and analysing with a microcomputer the time dependence of the conductivity change of the micropipette. The influence of methodical parameters (like geometry of the glass capillary, sucking pressure) as well as results concerning experimentally altered RBC by heat treatment are briefly described and give evidence that the parameters entry time te, passage time tp and amplitude A, derived from impulse-like changes of conductivity describe the deformability of an individual erythrocyte. Compared with parameters of RBC of healthy persons, those of patients with cIHD are significantly changed. Blood samples taken from the coronary sinus and from the left heart ventricle differ significantly in their values of amplitude. There are also differences of the obtained deformability parameters between cIHD with and without an increase of the left heart ventricular mass.
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