ИСТИНА

Introduction Erythrocyte deformability is one of the main microrheological parameters characteristics of blood. There are several methods of measuring this parameters characteristic, namely, micropipette aspiration, laser tweezers, atomic force microscopy, and others [1]. One of the most convenient practical methods is the laser diffractometry of erythrocytes in a shear flow (ektacytometry). This method was proposed in 1975 [2], and has since been used, without substantial changes, allowing for the measurement of the erythrocytes average deformability in a blood sample. It is known, however, that different red blood cells in the blood of healthy people, and sick people especially, have different ability to deform. This provides a basis for considering the deformability as a statistical characteristic of erythrocytes ensemble and to describe it with such notions as the distribution function, mean value, variance and so on other moments. In principle, the deformability distribution can be measured by photographing the erythrocytes in a shear flow (rheoscopy) [3]. However, this method has not yet received widespread practical use. Then the question arises: whether it is possible to measure these characteristics with the help of the laser ektacytometry technique? Search for an answer to this question is the subject of our work. Materials and methods We have theoretically analyzed the laser beam scattering by an inhomogeneous ensemble of red blood cells, and on this basis we propose new data processing algorithms for the laser ektacytometry [4]. These algorithms enable one to estimate the average deformability, deformability variance and asymmetry of the cells distribution in the shear-induced deformability for a blood sample under investigation. To test these algorithms, we have conducted experiments with specially prepared blood samples of rats. Results Studies show that the proposed algorithms allow one to obtain reliable data. Необходимо добавить детали (результаты проверки для разных распределений). Conclusion We have developed data processing algorithms for the laser ektacytometry of erythrocytes, which make it possible to evaluate the statistical characteristics of the erythrocyte deformability, namely, the average deformability, deformability variance, and asymmetry of the cells distribution in the deformability.