Transport of platelets in flowing blood.

Distribution and transport of platelets in flowing blood were studied experimentally using suspensions of washed red cells and fluorescent latex beads as platelet analogues. Distributions of the platelet analogues were obtained from stroboscopic epifluorescence photomicrographs of flow in 50-micron channels and from images of the cut cross sections of cryogenically frozen thin-walled 200-micron tubes. Concentration profiles of platelet analogues had a substantial near-wall excess for situations with a substantial hematocrit (greater than 10%) and a substantial wall shear rate (greater than 400 s-1). The viscosity of the suspending fluid was found to affect the size of the near-wall excess and its shear-dependent onset. Additionally, the shear-rate dependence of the near-wall excess did not occur with suspensions of hardened red cells. The excess extended a substantial distance from the wall in the 200-micron tubes and a portion of the profile could be fitted to an exponential curve. The random walk model that is used to describe enhanced platelet diffusion is envisioned as a walk (lateral platelet motion) caused by shear-induced collisions with red cells. A more comprehensive random walk model that includes biased collisions produces an effective lateral motion of convective nature in addition to a diffusional motion; it is used to explain the observed nonuniform distributions of platelet analogues.