The Rheology of the Blood

In the preceding paper (1b) a formula was developed for the lowering of the fluidity of a medium by a mixture of proteins, given the volume concentration of each and its fluidity-lowering constant. Whole blood is now shown to follow an essentially similar formula, except that the hemoglobin content is taken from the literature as the best available measure of the volume of the blood cells Delta Phi = 0.24H, assuming the fluidity of the medium to be 53 rhes. Age, sex, diet, barometric pressure affect the hemoglobin content of the blood, but the formula may apply to any healthy human blood to about 3 per cent. The shape, number, and size of the blood cells, if known, might help to explain discrepancies as well as the state of oxidation of the blood. In disease the discrepancy becomes much greater, suggesting the possible use of rheology in diagnosis.