Variation in Axial Velocity Profile of Red Cells Passing Through A Single Capillary

Abstract

Recently, we described an interactive computer graphics system for quantifying the velocity of individual red cells in capillaries in vivo (Ellis et al., 1987). This technique was developed in order to investigate our observation that, at specific sites in some capillaries, the velocity of individual red cells appeared to be consistantly faster or slower than that of other cells in the same capillary. We have proposed that these variations in velocity were due to irregularities in the capillary lumenal cross-sectional area along the length of the capillary segment. The red cell velocity at any point in the capillary should be inversely proportional to the cross-sectional area available for flow, assuming that the red cell velocity is proportional to the blood flowrate.