RHEOLOGIC STUDY OF THE DISSOCIATION REACT ION OF ERYTHROCYTE IMMUNOLOGICAL AGGLUTINATES - APPLICATION TO SUBGROUP-A ERYTHROCYTES

Red blood cell Agglutinates can be dissociated by providing enough ene rgy which may be supplied by shear stress in a viscometer. In this pay er a new technique is proposed to determine dissociation parameters of erythrocyte immunological agglutinates by using a laser backscatterin g method. Backscattered Light intensity increases during the process o f agglutinate dissociation when a controlled shear stress in a transpa rent Couette viscometer is applied. The obtained curves of dissociatio n ran be fitted by an exponential function. A numerical integration of the dissociation curves allows us to obtain a parameter associated to the energy used in the dissociation process. A satisfactory different iation of erythrocyte sub-groups A(1), Az, A(x)B and A(m) has been car ried out using this technique.