Age and gender specific variations of selected hemorheological variables in humans

Abstract

Over the last decades, investigations have shown that the physical and mechanical damage of red blood corpuscles may significantly affect the fluency and diffusion state of blood flow, alongside internal viscosity and fibrinolytic activities of the cardiovascular system that houses it. Current study was thus envisioned to investigate gender and age differences in selected hemo-rheological parameters [pH, Whole Blood Viscosity (WV), Plasma Viscosity (PV), Plasma Fibrinogen Concentration (PFC), Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and Euglobinlysis time (ELT)] of adult humans. One hundred and forty (140) participants of seventy two (72) males and sixty eight (68) female subjects were ethically approached from the staff and students’ community of the University of Benin, Edo state, Nigeria. Participants’ health status was carefully obtained by means of history taking and questionnaire, following which individuals were grouped into two based on gender. For each gender, subjects were sub-grouped into the ages of 31-40 years, 41-50 years, 51-60 years, and 61-70 years based on reported incidences (by age) of hemo-rheological anomalies. For each subject, blood samples were obtained and assayed for aforementioned hemo-rheological changes. Statistical comparison (using the one way analysis of variance - ANOVA) was then conducted on collected samples for comparison of differences in mean between groups. From obtained result, study found a statistically insignificant difference in all but WV across gender and age lines, with slight increase in all other parameters. However, none of the parameters was significantly different across age groups, suggestive that the parameters do not differ across age group in the male participants.