Plenary Lecture

Issue title: The Fourth European Conference on Clinical Hemorheology. Part I. Siena, Italy, 20–22 June 1985

Subtitle: The history of clinical hemorheology

Guest editors: Alfred L. Copley, Tullio Di Perri and Sandro Forconi

Article type: Research Article

Authors: L. Copley, Alfred

Affiliations: Laboratory of Biorheology, Polytechnic Institute of New York, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA

Abstract: The author introduced in 1960 the concept that the blood vessel and the circulating blood constitute an entity, which in 1981 he named the “vessel-blood organ”. Hemorheology can thus also be defined as the rheology of the vessel-blood organ. Clinical hemorheology deals with the clinical manifestations in disturbances, pathological conditions and disease processes of the vessel-blood organ, their diagnosis, therapy and prevention. Although it is not generally appreciated, certain fields of clinical hemorheology go back to the recorded history of ancient peoples, when disease processes of the vessel-blood organ were first recognized. The author gives a historical survey of pathologic manifestations pertaining to clinical hemorheology from antiquity to present day medicine. He found that Leonardo da Vinci in his text to his anatomical drawings was keenly aware of the continuous destruction and regeneration of blood. Hitherto unknown in the literature of the microcirculation, Copley discovered also that Leonardo was the first to recognize the existence of capillary blood vessels, named “vene chapillari”. Leonardo used the word “vene” to mean vein or vessel. Hemorheology was extended by the author to include the rheology of tissue fluids, the interstitial spaces, parenchymal cell membranes, lymph, lymph channels and its walls. For better identification of this field, it is named “parahemorheology”. Modern parahemorheology is discussed with regard to “structured flow”, electro-biorheology, piezoelectric effect, streaming potential caused by the flow of tissue fluid and the possibility of electromagnetic fields originating in the subject. Such small “auto-electro-magnetic fields”, if measurable, might contribute significantly to clinical parahemorheology. An outlook into the future development of medicine, in which clinical hemorheology plays a dominant role, is attempted. It is mainly derived from personal insights or reflections. They include some of the author’s experimental findings, his concepts or theories projected into the future of clinical hemorheology. The increasing significance of clinical hemorheology in the practice of medicine is stressed on the basis of contemporary findings.

Keywords: auto-electro magnetic field, biorheology, blood-letting, “Cohnheim compaction phenomenon”, cupping, electric potential, electro-biorheology, Robin Fåhraeus, fibrin, fibrinogenin, hemorheology, history of medicine, Leonardo da Vinci, modern medicine, parahemorheology, phlebotomy, piezoelectric effect, Jean-Léonard-Marie Poiseuille, “Poiseuille velocity effect”, Renaissance medicine, streaming potential, structured flow, tissue fluid, transcapillary transport, vessel-blood organ, “Witte inner circulation”

DOI: 10.3233/CH-1985-5602

Journal: Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 765-812, 1985