Laser beam scattering on an inhomogeneous ensemble of elliptical discs modelling red blood cells in an ectacytometer

We have theoretically studied the effect of difference in particle shapes on the appearance of the diffraction pattern, which arises in the scattering of a laser beam on a dilute suspension of erythrocytes in an ectacytometer. We have proposed data processing algorithms allowing one to estimate the red blood cell shape parameter variance under conditions of laser ectacytometry. The conclusions of the theoretical analysis are verified experimentally.