Aggregation and disaggregation of erythrocytes in whole blood: study by backscattering technique.

The aggregation phenomenon is of great importance for the evaluation of performance of the microcirculation system because of its influence on the blood viscosity at low shear stresses. Some important features and consequences of this phenomenon in vivo can be predicted in the in vitro experiments using optical methods. These methods are considered to be the most informative and applicable not only for the basic study of the aggregation phenomenon, but also for the diagnosis of a number of diseases and for the monitoring of therapeutic treatment in clinics. Results presented in this paper prove that the backscattering technique allows one to detect different changes of aggregational ability and deformability of erythrocytes and to get reliable and reproducible results distinguishing normal blood and blood with different pathologies. © 1999 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Clinical application of the measurement of spontaneous erythrocyte aggregation and disaggregation. A pilot study.

Aggregation and disaggregation kinetics of erythrocytes in samples of whole blood were studied using a backscattering nephelometry technique. Blood was drawn from normal subjects and from patients suffering from different diseases: chronic glomerulonephritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, hereditary hypercholesterolemia, pulmonary hypertension, intestinal tumors preoperatively (age > 60 years), psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ischemia and ischemia with diabetes. Blood samples of healthy donors were used as controls. The backscattering signal in the erythroaggregometer was processed according to algorithms yielding quantitative data on the full amplitude of aggregation, characteristic times of spontaneous aggregation, average hydrodynamic strength of all aggregates and, whenever possible, additionally, strength of the largest aggregates. The obtained results confirm that the complexity of erythrocyte aggregation kinetics requires multiparametric description which, when applied to clinical material, enables the differentiation of aggregation characteristics between diseases.