Many symptoms, such as Raynaud's phenomenon, skin ulcer, shortening of finger, in patients with progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS) are related to insufficiency of microcirculations. Concerning to hematological factors, the elevated platelet function have been mainly reported. In this study, we have tried to investigate any other hematological dysfunctions in PSS. The subjects were 10 patients with PSS and 12 healthy controls. Routine hemorheological parameters and blood passage times by the negative pressure filtration method using Nuclepore® filter by developed method of Reid-Kikuchi were evaluated. The results are summarized as follows;
1) Blood viscosity at all shear rates (18.8, 37.5, 75.0, 150.0, 375.0/sec) was elevated in patients with statistical significance.
2) Mean whole blood passage time and mean 40% RBC passage time (indicator of deformability disturbance of erythrocytes) in the patients were significantly delayed than those in the controls (p<0.01).
3) There was significant positive correlation between whole blood passage time and blood viscosity at shear rates of 18.8, 37.5, 75.0 and 150.0/sec. These results suggest the abnormal deformability of erythrocytes in patients of PSS, that may play a respectable role in insufficiency of microcirculations to cause various symptoms in PSS.
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