Introduction Osmoscan

The Lorrca Maxsis has an optional equipment with the possibility for automatic measurement of Red Blood Cell (RBC) deformability (expressed as elongation index, EI) as a continuous function of suspending medium osmolality. Both the shape and the position along the osmolality axis of specific features of these, so called osmoscans provide information about the cell`s deformability (at the chosen shear stress) as well as their intracellular viscosity and surface-volume ratio. For characterization of each osmoscan 4 parameters are defined:

• Omin (the osmolality at the EI minimum found in the hypotonic region)
• EImax (the maximal EI of the total curve)
• Omax (the osmolality at EI-max)
• Ohyper (the osmolality in the hypertonic region corresponding to 50% of the EI-max).

Application of this approach to a variety of RBC disorders is in line with first generation ektacytometers.

Osmoscans obtained after various experimental manipulations (heat treatment, exposure to shear stress and glutaraldehyde) of normal RBC, demonstrating the expected effects.