Study of erythrocyte aggregation at pulsatile flow conditions with backscattering analysis

In vivo red blood cell aggregation will vary under pulsatile flow but few studies have been reported due to various difficulties in generating physiological flow conditions and detecting RBC aggregation. The present study developed a microfluidic system that generates cyclic pulsatile flow through a microchannel. Backscattered light signals from human blood were recorded over time and analyzed for RBC aggregation in pulsatile flow. Four different blood samples (control, normal RBCs in PBS, hardened RBCs in autologous plasma, and hardened RBCs in PBS) were examined. In a cyclic pulsatile flow condition, light intensity-time curve for the control and hardened RBCs in plasma exhibited apparent critical shear stresses that were similar to the respective values measured at a single pulse flow condition. During entire cycles of pulsatile flow, the measured critical shear stress remained nearly constant. We conclude that the critical shear stress can be observed in cyclic pulsatile flow and would be an important index to represent in-vivo pulsatile blood flow rheology.