Abstract
Hemorrheological studies were carried out on the blood sampled from the cubital veins (CV), the femoral veins in the occlusive limbs (FV), and the femoral arteries in the non-occlusive limbs (FA) of the patients with arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO). The passage time through the Nuclepore membrane with the pore size of 5νm was measured on the whole blood, plasma, and 40% red blood cell (RBC) suspension. The viscosity was measured on the whole blood and plasma by Low Shear-30® (Contraves) at the shear rate of 94.5sec-1.
The passage time of the whole blood sampled from CV, FV, and FA were significantly longer than that from CV of healthy subjects. The passage time of 40% RBC suspension was significantly longer only in FV. The whole blood viscosity in CV, FV, and FA was not significantly different from that in CV of healthy subjects. However, the whole blood viscosity and hematocrit were significantly longer in FV and FA than in CV of the patients of ASO. Good correlations were observed on each hemorrheological parameter among three sites in ASO patients.
These results show that hemorrheological changes are the greatest in FV, and the passage time of the whole blood changes most sensitive in the patients of ASO. The hemorrheological parameters in CV probably reflect the hemorrheological change in ASO patients.
