Issue title: Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Biorheology. Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, 27 July – 1 August 1981. Dedicated to Alex Silberberg
Affiliations: Abt. Physiologie der RWTH, Aachen, Scheebergweg 211, D-5100 Aachen, Federal Republic of Germany
Note: [] Accepted by: Editor-in-Chief A.L. Copley
Abstract: The question whether blood exhibits pseudoelastic behavior i.e. if it behaves like a solid under negligible external forces, is of great theoretical interest for the clarification of stasis phenomena in the microcirculation. The determination of yield point, that is the change from the solid to the fluid phase, was at first only of abstract scientific importance for blood. In the diagnosis and treatment of patients with flow anomalies this phenomenon is increasingly important, as numerous possibilities now exist to modify the flow behavior of blood by therapeutical changes of composition. Therefore it seems to be of high priority to review and discuss the numerous methods for the quantification of a yield shear stress.
