Determinants of whole blood and plasma inertia in diabetic patients and healthy controls

Abstract

The rheological properties of blood play an important role in determining blood flow. Blood inertia, as characterized by blood density, controls blood flow in the large arteries, whereas blood viscosity becomes increasingly important with decreasing vessel diameter. We investigated potential determinants of plasma and whole blood density in 26 Type 1 diabetic patients and in 24 healthy controls matched for age and sex. Plasma density correlated significantly with total protein (p<0.001) and albumin concentrations (p<0.004), whole blood density was significantly associated with hematocrit (p<0.001) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (p<0.04). Plasma and whole blood density correlated significantly with plasma (p<0.001) and whole blood viscosity (p<0.005), respectively. Diabetic patients did not differ from healthy controls in plasma or whole blood density. When no densitometer is available, it will be sufficient to measure total protein concentration and hematocrit, respectively, to address inertial forces of plasma and whole blood qualitatively.