[Red cell filterability, smoking and cardiovascular risk factors (author's transl)]

Red cell deformability, which allows cells of 7 mu diameter to flow through capillaries not larger than 3 mu, can be approached by the measure of blood filterability on nuclepore 5 mu filters. Filterability is reduced in arterial diseases. We have, in 72 patients, correlated red cell filterability, with the number of cardiovascular risk factors present high blood pressure, overweight, diabetes, hyperuricemia, hyperlipemia smoking). There is a statistical difference between groups with risk factors present as a whole and with O risk factor (p less than 0.01). The difference is highly significant between O and 4 risk factors (p less than 0.0005). Filterability decrease is also directly correlated with the number of cigarettes smoked per day (less than 0.05) and decrease is enhanced by smoking two cigarettes.