Abstract
A system for evaluating deformability of red blood cells (RBCs) from whole blood is proposed and tested. From previous studies, it is known that RBC characteristics are significantly changed under different solutions, and the plasma of blood is the most natural and friendly environment for RBCs. As a result, it will be the best if RBCs can be evaluated in plasma. Therefore, we developed a system of on-chip evaluation for whole blood based on microfluidics. The plasma is firstly separate from whole blood by a sub stream, and later join the main stream again to achieve diluting RBC concentration. The deformability index based on cell size change is utilized for evaluation. From the experiment, we successfully evaluate RBCs without using any artificial buffer.