INNOVATIONS IN THE MODELING OF THE
RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF BLOOD

N. N. Firsova and M. A. Vyshlovab 

UDC 577.353:567.322:612.766

A simple substantiation of the application of backward 
light scattering to diagnostics of the aggregation state of blood 
has been proposed. It has been shown that the kinetics of spontaneous 
and shear aggregation obeys the kinetics of second order (Smolukhowski 
kinetics) and that the Smolukhowski constant is a function of the 
shape of an erythrocyte and the concentration of a high-molecular-weight 
polymer and it linearly depends on the rate of shear. The form of 
the dependence of the average size of erythrocyte aggregates on the 
rate of shear has been established. An expression for the apparent 
viscosity of blood as a function of the average size of an erythrocyte 
has been obtained; this expression has the form of a logarithmic asymptotics 
which remains constant with variation of the macromolecular composition 
of the plasma, the action of plasmapheresis, and the change in the 
hematocrit and enables one to determine both the rate of shear at 
which the process of disaggregation begins and the rate of shear in 
total disaggregation of erythrocytes and accordingly the maximum and 
minimum values of the viscosity of the blood.

aRussian State Medical University, Moscow, Russia; email: 
firs@rsmu.ru; bInstitute of Rheumatology, 
Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia. 
Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 76, No. 3, pp. 
188-198, May-June, 2003. Original article submitted September 6, 2002.