Abnormal hemorheological properties in patients with compensated and decompensated hepatic cirrhosis

In this study the hemorheological profiles of blood samples from cirrhotic patients (compensated and decompensated) were determined, along with 18 normal healthy volunteers for comparison. Both groups of patients were anaemic, and as a consequence had a lower native blood viscosity by comparison with the healthy control group. However, after adjusting the hematocrit to 45% the high shear rate (128 s(-1)) viscosity was within the normal range, while that at low shear rate (0.277 s(-1)) exhibited a significant increase in both groups of patients over that of the control group. This was partly due to the elevated plasma viscosities in the patients, but in the main is explained by exaggerated red blood cell aggregation. In spite of normal total plasma protein concentration in the patients, the concentration of rouleaugenic proteins was altered, and this particularly applied to the immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA and IgM). These results demonstrate that the hemorheology of the cirrhotics is disturbed from normal.