Whole-blood red blood cell aggregometer for human and feline blood

A whole-blood aggregometer of red blood cells (RBC) is described. It consists of a transparent 0.26-cm ID vinyl tube of approximately 30 cm in length containing freshly drawn heparinized blood and a densitometer head that is attached to the tube. The densitometer head consists of an infrared light source of gallium arsenide and a light detector (silicon photodiode) to monitor changes in optical density of the blood in the tube. The tube and densitometer head were installed in a temperature-controlled box at 37 degrees C. The blood in the tube was first subjected to rapid flow with a solenoid so that the wall shear rate of the blood was approximately 500 s-1. The shear gave rise to a rapid increase in optical density of the blood due to dispersion of the blood corpuscles. The blood was then brought abruptly to a full stop. After the flow had stopped the densitometer head revealed a gradual decrease in optical density in association with RBC aggregate formation. The resultant pattern was termed by us an "RBC aggregogram." The RBC aggregogram exhibited an exponential decay in its initial part, which was followed by an asymptotic decrease. A simple mathematical procedure was employed to calculate the rate constant of the initial decrease from the two values on the RBC aggregogram at 10 and 20 s. The rate constant k10 was 0.192 +/- 0.028 (5.2 s as time constant; 3.6 s as half time) for feline blood and 0.129 +/- 0.012 (7.7 s as time constant; 5.3 s as half time) for human blood. The RBC aggregation rate varied linearly with the hematocrit below 40%.