Affiliations: Servicio de Hematología, Departmento de Bioquímica Clínica, Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina | Instituto de Física Rosario (IFIR), Grupo Bio‐Optico, CONICET, y Area Física de Facultad de Bioquímica y Ciencias Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina
Note: [] Corresponding author: Prof. Dra. Susana Mabel Pérez, Cátedra de Hematología, Departamento de Bioquímica Clínica, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Suipacha 531, 2000 Rosario, República Argentina. Tel.: +54 (0) 341 4804592 93 97; E‐mail: [email protected].
Abstract: Haemorheological parameters, such as red blood cell deformability, membrane elastic modulus and membrane surface viscosity in twenty one thalassaemia heterozygous patients (14 β0/β and 7 β+/β) were compared with normal individuals (n=15). Parameters were measured applying a laser diffractometric method (ektacytometry). Thalassaemia erythrocytes showed statistically significant lower deformability and higher elastic modulus. Surface viscosity showed no significant differences in thalassaemia. Creep and recovery curves were registered by diffractometry. The normal recovery curve was fitted by a first order exponential decay function, expressing the fitting degree by the χ2 coefficient. The shape of the recovery curve in β‐thalassaemia patients (β0/β or β+/β) was significantly different from the control group. The possible mechanism of red blood cells abnormal rheological behaviour in β‐thalassaemia minor could be explained by a surface charge reduction. Our results enable us to conclude that the shape of the recovery curve (χ2 coefficient) could be considered as a marker that might be useful in β‐thalassaemia diagnosis.
Keywords: β‐thalassaemia minor, erythrocyte rheology, creep and recovery curves
