Rheological behaviours of RBC in β- thalassemia conditions

Abstract

Thalassemia is considered an inherited blood disorder disease which is a prevalent anemia in Mediterranean region. β-thalassemia is the most common phenotype of thalassemia. There have been a large amount of studies aboutβ-thalassemia and its RBCs dysfunctions. In this review paper, the rheological behaviors of RBC in pathological conditions, especially the β-thalassemia conditions, including the change of RBC deformability, aggregation behavior and cell membrane stability are discussed. In addition, some methods or instruments which are used to estimate these properties of RBC are also introduced. Particularly, a new version LoRRca MaxSiswhich can detect not only the RBC deformability and aggregation behavior, but also the cell membrane stability is described in detail.