Affiliations: [a] Department of Polymer Science, Faculty of Technology Gunma University, Kiryu, Gunma 376, Japan | [b] National Cardiovascular Center Research Institute, Suita, Osaka 565, Japan
Note: [] Accepted by: Editor E. Fukada
Abstract: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate was measured in a physiological saline solution as a function of both the tube diameter d and the initial suspension length ı0. All the sedimentation curves in the vertical tubes were found to overlap over the range 1 mm < d < 7 mm and 100 mm < ı0 < 330 mm, within the precision of 8 %. The sedimentation curves in the tilted tubes fit well to an exponential equation of
ı=a[1−exp(−bt)],
where ı and t are the medium length along the tube and the elapsed time from sample injection respectively: At fixed tilt angle θ and ı0. a was roughly constant and b was roughly proportional to l/d, while at fixed θ and d, a was linearly proportional to to and b was constant. The initial slope ESR(θ)=(dı/dt)t→0=ab was represented by a unique straight line as a function of ı0/d for each fixed tilt angle. The experimental results were compared with some recent theories.
