A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF RED BLOOD CELL AGGREGATION FROM BOVINE BLOOD

SERVILIA OANCEA

Biophysics Department, “I.I. de la Brad” University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, 3, Aleea Sadoveanu, Iaşi

Abstract. Red blood cell (RBC) aggregation is an important component of whole blood viscosity and the major cause of non-Newtonian blood flow properties. Red cell aggregation has been shown to play a role in viscosity at low shear rates and deformability at high shear rates. At the moment there are two co-existing “models” for RBC aggregation but this phenomenon is not fully understood yet. Samples from peripheral bovine blood were preparated by using May-Grüwald Giemsa colorature. With the aid of a microscope we obtained many photos of the aggregates. In this paper, we used erythrocyte planar images of clusters formed in cow blood to compute the fractal dimension of the aggregates by means of HarFA, a harmonic and fractal image analyzer.
Key words: RBC aggregation, bovine blood, HarFA soft.

Author’s e-mail: lioancea@univagro-iasi.ro

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