Hemorheological changes and characteristic parameters derived from whole blood viscometry in chronic heroin addicts

摘要

Abstract. A group of 15 chronic opioid addicts (DA) with mean age 26.5 ± 7.3 years was studied by means of a rotationalnContraves Low Shear 30 viscometer and the results have been compared with a control group of 19 healthy subjects. It wasnfound that the mean whole blood viscosity values of the investigated group of heroin abusers (n = 15) were elevated comparednto that of healthy persons (n = 19) over the whole shear rate range and fell by more than ten orders of magnitude (Savov et al.,n2006). The present investigation uses the coefficients of the models of Ostwald-de-Walle (power law) and Herschel–Bulkleynlaw, which describe whole blood flow curves (τ − .nγ ) within the shear rates range from 10−2 to 102 s−1 and itself incorporatenwhole blood viscosity data in the entire shear rate range. A significant difference in the mean yield shear stress τ0 values ofnthe drug abusers’ group compared to the controls was found. A strong positive linear correlation was determined between thenparameters of RBC aggregation in the group of heroin addicts confirming our previous results (Ivanov and Antonova, 2005;nSavov, Zvetkova et al., 2007; Savov, Antonova et al., 2007) for intensive RBC and platelet aggregation and morphologicalnchanges in DA group.