Guidelines for measurement of blood viscosity and erythrocyte deformability

Abstract

This ICSH document proposes guidelines for rheological methods in clinical studies. These methods include the measurement of blood viscosity and erythrocyte deformability. The guidelines concern reference populations for clinical studies, standardization of the blood collection procedure, laboratory processing of blood samples, measurement of haematological indices on rheological samples, and the evaluation of rheological instruments and rheologically-active drugs. Adoption of these guidelines should improve comparability between rheological laboratories and increase the reliability of rheological tests.