Abstract
The hydrodynamic effect of periodically fluctuating shear rate on erythrocyte destruction was quantitatively studied in vitro in comparison with constant shear rates. Uniform shear rates (< 1,000 s-1; constant or sinusoidally fluctuating with time) were applied to heparinized canine blood contained in the concavo-convex type of Couette flow testing machine for (1.8-9.0) .times. 103 s at 24.degree. C. The results show that the erythrocyte destruction (evaluated with hemolysis ratio; plasma hemoglobin count per whole blood hemoglobin count) decreases when the exposure time of larger (> 500 s-1) shear rates is interspersed with smaller (< 300 s-1) shear rates.