AN EX-VIVO ORIGINAL TEST USING RADIOTRACERS FOR EVALUATING HEMOCOMPATIBILITY OF TUBULAR BIOMATERIALS

The haemocompatibility of a vascular prosthesis can be estimated as th e result of its interaction with blood components. The authors describ e an ex vivo canine shunt for evaluating isotopic haemocompatibility i n blood-wall interactions. Methods employing radioisotopic tracers can be used to dynamically monitor the adsorption of labelled blood cells and proteins on different biomaterial surfaces. This ex vivo test sho uld enable materials to be assessed for quality according to two throm bogenic criteria: (i) number of adhered platelets mm(-2) s(-1); (ii) q uantity of adsorbed fibrinogen expressed as mu g mm(-2)s(-1), which wo uld provide the basis for a scale of haemocompatibility.