Abstract
WHEN blood flows through narrow tubes, the larger suspended particles tend to accumulate in the centre, leaving a zone of plasma near the walls. In mammals, the red cells are smaller than the leucocytes but, when associated in groups (rouleaux or clumps), they will tend to replace the leucocytes in the centre, thus altering the distribution of concentration. This means that Poiseuille's fourth-power radius law fails to hold1. Several authors, notably Fåhraeus2, have stressed the importance of this in large and small vessels in vivo. The significance of intravascular clumping or ’sludging‘ has been widely discussed by Knisely and his school3 (see also ref. 4).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Scott Blair, G. W., Rheol. Acta, 1, 123 (1958).
Fåhraeus, R., Acta Med. Scand., 161, 151 (1958).
Knisely, M. H., Postgrad. Med., 10, 16 (1951).
Copley, A. L., Rheol. Acta (in the press).
Schofield, R. K., and Scott Blair, G. W., J. Phys. Chem., 34, 248 (1930).
Copley, A. L., Krchma, L. C., and Whitney, M. E., J. Gen. Physiol., 26, 49 (1942).
Herschel, W. H., and Bulkley, R., Kolloidzschr., 39, 291 (1926).
Casson, N., Brit. Soc. Rheol. Bull., No. 52, 5 (1957).
Casson, N., Chapter in “Rheology of Disperse Systems”, ed. By Mill, C. C. (Pergamon Press, London; in process of publication).
Steiner, E. H., Internat. Chocolate Rev., 13, No. 7 (1958).
Kümin, K., Inaugural Dissertation, Physiol. Inst. Univ. Freiburg (Switz., 1949).
Suter, H., Arch. Kreislaufforsch., 10, 329 (1942).
Müller, A., “Abhandlungen zur Mechanik der Flüssigkeiten”, Verl. d. Univ.-buchhandl. (Freiburg, Switz., 1936).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
BLAIR, G. An Equation for the Flow of Blood, Plasma and Serum through Glass Capillaries. Nature 183, 613–614 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/183613a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/183613a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Physiology-based parameterization of human blood steady shear rheology via machine learning: a hemostatistics contribution
Rheologica Acta (2023)
-
A review on non-Newtonian fluid models for multi-layered blood rheology in constricted arteries
Archive of Applied Mechanics (2023)
-
On blood-based binary Casson nanofluid convection using viscosity and conductivity variations embedded with Darcy porous medium
Indian Journal of Physics (2023)
-
Fluid structure interaction study of non-Newtonian Casson fluid in a bifurcated channel having stenosis with elastic walls
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
CFD Modelling of Casson Fluid Flow and Mass Transport Through Atherosclerotic Vessels
Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems (2022)