RESUMEN
This paper is to report the study of the microscopic and macroscopic he-morrheological changes and the conditions of the nail-fold microcirculation in 30 patients with severe viral hepatitis. Normal 'individuals, patients with acute icteric hepatitis, and those with chronic active hepatitis were employed as the controls.The changes observed in the patients with severe viral hepatitis were as follows: The reduced viscosity of the whole blood and the plasma viscosity increased markedly, the dispersion rate of the blood viscosity values increased as the clinical state of the patient became more severe, and the factors increasing the blood viscosity (namely, increase of the amount of immune globulin, pro-longation of the electrophoretic time of RBC, increase of RBC sedimentation rate), and the factors decreasing the blood viscosity (namely, decreases of he-matocrit reading, fibrinogen, and the aggregation ratio of platelets) existed simultaneously. The changes of the flow condition and velocity of the nail-fold microcirculation were in close correlation with the increase of blood viscosity and the severity of the disease.The causes and the mechanism of the above-mentioned changes were discussed.