Time dependent variation of human blood conductivity as a method for an estimation of RBC aggregation

Time variation of whole human blood conductivity and shear stresses were investigated at rectangular and trapezium-shaped Couette viscometric flow under electric field of 2 kHz. The kinetics of conductivity signals were recorded both under transient flow and after the complete stoppage of shearing at shear rates from 0.94 to 94.5 s(-1) and temperatures T=25 degrees C and 37 degrees C. Contraves Low Shear 30 rotational viscometer as a base unit and a concurrent measuring system, including a device, developed by the conductometric method with a software for measurement of conductivity of biological fluids (data acquisition system), previously described (IFMBE Proceedings Series, Vol. 11, 2005, pp. 4247-4252; Clin. Hemorheol. Microcirc. 35(1/2) (2006), 19-29), were used for the experiments. The obtained experimental relationships show that the human blood conductivity is time, shear rate, hematocrit and temperature dependent under transient flow. It is also dependent on the regime of the applied shear rates. Non-linear curve approximation of the growth and relaxation curves is done. The results show that valuable information could be received about the kinetics of "rouleaux formation" and the time dependences of the blood conductivity follow the structural transformations of RBC aggregates during the aggregation-disaggregation processes. The results suggest that this technique may be used to clarify the mechanism of dynamics of RBC aggregates.