Effect of four non-ionic contrast media on red blood cells in vitro. III. Deformability.

The influence of four non-ionic contrast media and one ionic contrast medium was analyzed on red blood cell deformability in vitro. The newly synthesized non-ionic monomeric iopentol and dimeric iodixanol were compared with the currently used non-ionic monomers iopamidol and iohexol and the ionic monomeric diatrizoate at a constant hematocrit of 8%. The effect on red blood cell deformability was analyzed in 50% volume ratio solutions of both original hypertonic and isotonic contrast media solutions. The samples were studied in a red blood cell filtrometer through new Mynipore microsieves using an improved procedure of data processing. Diatrizoate induced significantly more red blood cell rigidification compared with all non-ionic contrast media solutions and normal blood. There was no difference between the investigated non-ionic contrast media, nor between the non-ionic contrast media and normal blood without additive.