Bessis M, Mohandas N, Feo C
Blood Cells. 1980;6(3):315-27.
The automated ektacytometer enables rapid measurement of red cell deformability by using small aliquots of blood (25 microliter). By subjecting red cells to varying shear stress in suspending media of different osmolalities, one can identify separate contributions of membrane viscoelastic properties, internal viscosity, and surface area-to-volume ratio to overall cellular deformability. The influence of drugs on red cell deformability can also be investigated. Analysis of the diffraction pattern of red cells that are aligned in the ektacytometer at minimal shear stress enables improved measurement of red cell diameter. Modern computerized image analysis can further improve the reliability of this measurement. Volume measurement of red cells of unusual shape is possible. since, under certain conditions, they transform into uniform ellipsoids in the ektacytometer. Aided again by improved image analysis, simple accurate computation of red cell volume becomes possible Ektacytometric measurement may provide a sensitive assessment of the overall functional integrity of living red cells or subpopulations of red cells. As such, these measurements are of research interest and may have major clinical utility.
自动血细胞变形仪能够通过使用少量血液样本（25微升）快速测量红细胞变形性。通过在不同渗透压的悬浮介质中使红细胞承受不同的剪切应力，可以确定膜粘弹性特性、内部粘度以及表面积与体积之比对整体细胞变形性的单独贡献。还可以研究药物对红细胞变形性的影响。对在血细胞变形仪中以最小剪切应力排列的红细胞衍射图案进行分析，可以改进红细胞直径的测量。现代计算机图像分析可以进一步提高这种测量的可靠性。对于形状异常的红细胞进行体积测量是可行的，因为在某些条件下，它们在血细胞变形仪中会转变为均匀的椭球体。再次借助改进的图像分析，简单准确地计算红细胞体积成为可能。血细胞变形仪测量可以对活红细胞或红细胞亚群的整体功能完整性进行灵敏评估。因此，这些测量具有研究价值，并且可能具有重要的临床应用价值。
