In vivo blood viscosity and hindrance

¹ USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, and Donner Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California

This paper presents an in vivo method for measuring peripheral resistance and differentiating between the role of blood viscosity and hindrance. A vascular bed was connected to a pressure generator and recording system. At rest the vascular bed was perfused by the animal, but during the short duration of an experimental run the perfusing pressure was supplied solely by the pressure generator. The apparatus was constructed so that the flow rate was proportional to the rate of change of pressure. The shape of a portion of the curve of pressure versus time is determined solely by total resistance in the vascular bed. Total resistance is a function of hindrance and blood viscosity, and therefore a change in either of these produces a change in the shape of the pressure versus time curves. Since the change in shape produced by a change in viscosity differs from that produced by a change in hindrance, it is possible to differentiate between these two factors.

Key Words: rheology of blood • vascular resistance • blood circulation • peripheral circulation • blood viscosity

Submitted on July 30, 1962

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