Haemorheological evaluation with the Filtrometer MF4 in a group of diabetics

In this research we evaluated the red blood cell deformability using the Filtrometer MF4. Our study includes a group of 44 diabetics and a group of 20 normal controls. Since we used only paper filters, the reading, made on four channels on the same sample, lasted 83' at the end of which we examined: SL80%, SL60%, SL50%, SL40%, SL20% (values of the trigonometric tangent of the alpha angle, i.e., the angle that the geometric tangent at the curve in predetermined points forms with the t axis); T50 (time employed to filter 50% of the sample); MinT (time employed to reach residual blood volume). Examining the trend of the SL values it is evident that the filtration curve is different between normals and diabetics and not between diabetics subdivided for vascular complications.