The effect of rouleaux formation on blood coagulation.

The coagulation of whole blood resulting a blood clot is initiated in vitro for studying the effect of rouleaux formation on the kinetics of coagulation and clot formation. The clot formation is monitored in the rotational viscosimeter and in the erythroaggregometer using a light backscattered technique. The intensity of flow as well as hematocrit were changed in a way to determine a tendency in the effect of rouleaux size on the rate of coagulation. The results indicate that the clot formation is promoted when size of rouleaux is small at higher shear rates and low hematocrit in comparison with the coagulation at low shear rates and high hematocrit when the size of rouleaux is increased.