Red blood cells sedimentation as a collective process - experimental and theoretical modeling

Background and Objectives: The experimental and mathematical simulation was performed which aimed to study the mechanism of blood sedimentation process, which is the base of the standard medical diagnostic ESR method. Experimentally and by means of physical and mathematical simulation, the dependence of the blood solution sedimentation rate, as well as its model in the form of a porous mechanical disk on the parameters of both objects is studied. It was shown that the patterns of sedimentation of biological and mechanical objects are largely similar, that is a definite confirmation of the possibility to describe the blood sedimentation in the form of the collective red blood cell process previously proposed by the authors. Materials and Methods: The sedimentation rate definition method was based on digital frames analysis both for blood samples and mechanical discs. In experiments with blood 10$\times$10$\times$45 mm cuvettes were used. The whole blood concentration in samples is varied from 30% to 100%. The observation time for all samples was 120 minutes. In experiments with mechanical discs a vessel with 60 mm diameter was used. Discs have different parameters: the number and the size of holes. Results: Theoretical models for blood and disc sedimentation were created. The theoretical and experimental results are in agreement with each other. Moreover, both models show almost the same behavior. Conclusion: The presented theoretical and experimental results prove the conception of RBC sedimentation as a collective process which is important to acusto-optical blood typing method investigation.