An on-chip RBC deformability checker significantly improves velocity-deformation correlation

Chia-Hung Tsai*, Junichi Tanaka, Makoto Kaneko, Mitsuhiro Horade, Hiroaki Ito, Tatsunori Taniguchi, Tomohito Ohtani, Yasushi Sakata

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

An on-chip deformability checker is proposed to improve the velocity-deformation correlation for red blood cell (RBC) evaluation. RBC deformability has been found related to human diseases, and can be evaluated based on RBC velocity through a microfluidic constriction as in conventional approaches. The correlation between transit velocity and amount of deformation provides statistical information of RBC deformability. However, such correlations are usually only moderate, or even weak, in practical evaluations due to limited range of RBC deformation. To solve this issue, we implemented three constrictions of different width in the proposed checker, so that three different deformation regions can be applied to RBCs. By considering cell responses from the three regions as a whole, we practically extend the range of cell deformation in the evaluation, and could resolve the issue about the limited range of RBC deformation. RBCs from five volunteer subjects were tested using the proposed checker. The results show that the correlation between cell deformation and transit velocity is significantly improved by the proposed deformability checker. The absolute values of the correlation coefficients are increased from an average of 0.54 to 0.92. The effects of cell size, shape and orientation to the evaluation are discussed according to the experimental results. The proposed checker is expected to be useful for RBC evaluation in medical practices.

Original languageEnglish
Article number176
JournalMicromachines
Volume7
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2016

Keywords

  • Deformability
  • Microfluidic constriction
  • Red blood cells (RBC)
  • Velocity-deformation correlation

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