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

ABSTRACT

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.