Preface

The Laser-assisted Optical Rotational Cell Analyzer (LORCA) was developed at the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam by Dr. M.R.Hardeman and P.T.Goedhart and has been used for many years at the Laboratory for Clinical Hemorheology at the Dept. of Internal Medicine Reference 26 Hardeman M.R., De Rie M.A., Schut N.H., Wilmink J.H., Impaired erythrocyte deformability in psoriasis patients after treatment with cyclosporin, Clin. Hemorheol., vol. 11:(6), pp. 784, 1991., 31 Hardeman M.R., Goedhart P.T., Dobbe J.G.G., Lettinga K.P., Laser-assisted Optical Rotational Cell Analyser (LORCA); A new instrument for measurement of various structural hemorheological parameters, Clin. Hemorheol., vol. 14:(4), pp. 605-618, 1994..

Later models where enhanced and the instrument was extended for aggregation measurements. The software packages and documentation were implemented by Dr. J.G.G. Dobbe from the Dept. of Medical Technological Development. 15,16 The instrument was made commercially available by R&R Mechatronics38 up to 2008 under the name LoRRca.

In 2009 the original hardware was improved and extended with the facility to measure red cell deformability under a gradient of medium osmolalities (REF). The corresponding new software was written by Mechatronics Instruments B.V. The new version of this instrument is named: LoRRca MaxSis.

This version 3.0 of the Manual is an extension and adaptation of version 2.1 written by J.G.G. Dobbe (AMC).

Dr. M.R.Hardeman, S. Hendriks

November 2009