Blood viscosity and erythrocyte filterability: their evaluation in diabetes mellitus.

Blood viscosity and erythrocyte filterability were assessed in forty-five diabetics subdivided for type and vascular complications. From the obtained data, it is evident that blood viscosity at high shear rates does not distinguish diabetics from normals nor diabetics from one another, whereas at low shear rates it is able to differentiate normals from diabetics and diabetics with and without vascular complications. As for the erythrocyte filterability, it is evident that the Vrbc, obtained by filtering whole-blood, distinguishes diabetics from normals, whereas this does not happen with the DI, obtained by filtering red blood suspended (5%) in prefiltered autologous plasma.