title: Measurement of RBC deformation and velocity in capillaries in vivo.
abstract: Red blood cells (RBC) become deformed while flowing through capillaries. We captured images of blood flow in capillaries and of RBC in the rat mesentery using a high-speed camera at 2000 frames/s and then directly measured and estimated the deformation and velocity of RBC in a non-uniform capillary. The distribution of the capillary diameter was determined by image processing. We applied a deformation index and simple modeling to observe RBC deformation in capillaries. The average capillary diameter was approximately 6.2 microm, and the average velocity of RBC was about 1.85 mm/s. The average deformation index of RBC in the capillary was about 1.55. The present results showed that RBC in capillaries generally assume a specific shape depending on external forces such as the velocity of the blood flow and capillary diameter in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Department of Quantum Engineering and Systems Science, the University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan. jeong@utnl.jp
authors.forename: Jae Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Yasusiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sugii
authors.forename: Motomu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Minamiyama
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D002196:Capillaries / Q000502:physiology*; D004907:Erythrocyte Deformability; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013152:Splanchnic Circulation