Viscosity of Blood

Visc Bld

Definition

Plasma and serum viscosity measurements are used in the clinical management of patients with hyperviscosity syndrome, which is caused by a variety of clinical diagnoses, such as polycythemia, Waldenström macroglobulinemia, multiple myeloma, and occasional cases of rheumatoid arthritis, SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus, hyperfibrinogenemia and leukemia. Common symptoms of hyperviscosity are, bleeding, visual signs or symptoms, and neurologic deficits. The viscosity at which symptoms develop is variable, but they rarely appear below a serum or plasma viscosity of 3 cP. Viscosity can be reported qualitatively or quantitatively. Commonly, quantitative units are defined as "rel to H2O", and are expressed in centipoise (cP).[PMID: 16830959] Whole blood viscosity is increased in polycythemia, rouleau formation, and other conditions listed for serum and plasma, but may be of limited clinical value because of the differences in shear rates between the instrument and in vivo conditions.[Tietz]

Blood; Point in time; QNT; Quan; Quant; Quantitative; Random; SPEC; Vicos; Viscos; Viscosity; WB; Whole blood