Assessment of erythrocyte shape by flow cytometry techniques

Area of Science:

• Hematology
• Medical Technology
• Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

• Red blood cell (RBC) rheology is altered in critical conditions like sepsis, diabetes, and renal failure.
• Existing methods for assessing RBC deformability are often cumbersome for large-scale use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel, rapid flow cytometry technique for assessing RBC shape in patients.
• To establish an efficient method for evaluating RBC abnormalities in various disease states.

Main Methods:

• Utilized flow cytometry to analyze RBC shape, calculating the second Pearson coefficient of dissymmetry (PCD) and spherical index (M2:M1).
• Applied the technique to healthy volunteers and patients with terminal renal failure, diabetes mellitus, sepsis, and acute inflammatory states.
• Performed multivariate analysis to identify factors influencing RBC shape.

Main Results:

• The flow cytometry method for measuring RBC shape demonstrated high reproducibility.
• RBCs exhibited increased sphericity in patients with terminal renal failure, diabetes, sepsis, and acute inflammatory states compared to healthy controls.
• Underlying pathology was identified as the primary driver of RBC shape abnormalities.

Conclusions:

• RBCs display increased sphericity across numerous disease states.
• The second PCD measurement via flow cytometry offers a new, facile approach to investigate RBC shape in diverse pathologies.
• This technique holds potential to advance the study of RBC rheology abnormalities.