[Effect of vincamine on blood viscosity].

Pervincamine has been launched since several years for the therapy of cardiovascular disease. As the mechanism of efficacy is not known very well it has been investigated whether the substance has a favorable influence on the rheology of the blood in in vitro studies. The addition of different concentrations of Pervincamin to normoosmolar blood samples showed no change of the rheology of blood in vitro. Under hyperosmolar loading conditions as they can be found comparatively in the blood of the microcirculation of an ischemic working muscle, a statistically significant improvement of the filtration of erythrocytes can be found which is largely due to an improvement of the flexibility of the erythrocyte. These investigations show that Pervincamin effects favorably rheological properties under certain conditions. Further analyses are necessary in order to elucidate the relation between cerebrovascular insufficiency on one hand and the vincamin induced improvement of rheology on the other.