Relationships between blood rheology and age, body mass index, blood cell count, fibrinogen, and lipids in healthy subjects.

We investigated the relationships between blood rheology assessed by microchannel method and the various hemorheologic factors in healthy subjects. One hundred seventy-six healthy volunteers (90 men and 86 women, mean age; 32.9+/-11.3 years) were participated in this study. Body weight, body mass index, red blood cell count, hematocrit, hemoglobin, white blood cell count, and platelet count, plasma fibrinogen, and fasting serum lipid and lipoprotein concentrations were measured. In order to assess blood rheology, blood passage time was determined by a microchannel method (Micro Channel Array Flow Analyzer). Age, body mass index, red blood cell count, hematocrit, hemoglobin, white blood cell count, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride were positively correlated with blood passage time in all subjects, respectively (p<0.01) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was inversely correlated with blood passage time (p<0.01). However, platelet count, and fibrinogen were not correlated with blood passage time. The present study showed that increased age, body mass index, red blood cell count, white blood cell count, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglyceride and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol were associated with impaired blood rheology measured by microchannel method in healthy subjects, suggesting that aging, obesity, erythrocytosis, leukocytosis, and dyslipidemia may be related to hemorheological disorders. This microchannel method may be useful to study blood rheology which may be associated with various risk factors of cardiovascular disorders.