Experimental verification of blood characterization based on ultrasonic blood flow measurement

Blood viscosity is expected as an index for detecting the blood abnormality such as thrombosis and local aggregation of erythrocyte. However, since the whole blood is the non-Newtonian fluid and the blood viscosity depends on not only the blood abnormality but also the magnitude of shear rate, it is difficult to detect the blood abnormality by using the only blood viscosity information. In this study, with the aim of evaluating the change of blood property uniquely, a blood characterization using the shear rate-viscosity (SV) curve, which is based on the ultrasonic blood velocity measurement, is proposed. The feasibility of proposed method was verified by the experiments using the fresh bovine blood.