Comparison of filtration, micropipette aspiration and viscometry in osmotically swollen red blood cells

Abstract

Osmotic variation in the water content of the red cell is a simple and straightforward experimental procedure that affects primarily two determinants of its normal deformability: the SA/V ratio and the intracytoplasmic viscosity. Professor Chien and his colleagues have used this model to test and to compare the sensitivity of three commonly used techniques in their capacity to detect small changes in red cell deformability.