Assessment of blood fluidity and the development of the microchannel method for preventive medicine and disease activity evaluation

Abstract

Hemorheology deals with the flow properties of blood. Research has primarily focused on analyzing the state of blood flow and the characteristics of blood in the microcirculation, such as in capillaries. In studies on blood fluidity, the ektacytometry method, which uses a laser-assisted optical rotational cell analyzer, has been the mainstream approach. In contrast, the microchannel method, which uses a microchannel array flow analyzer, was developed in Japan, and is characterized by the ability to analyze samples without any pretreatment and visualize the flow of blood under conditions that closely approximate physiological reality. This review focuses on the microchannel method and provides an overview of blood fluidity, covering the fundamentals of analytical methods, diurnal variations in blood fluidity, factors that impair blood fluidity, exercise-induced disturbances under high-intensity conditions, and the prevention of exercise-induced impairment of blood fluidity.