Avaliação da deformabilidade eritrocitária através da ectacitometria na deficiência de ferro

Abstract

Abstract Deformability allows the 7- to 8- µ m red cells to circulatethrough capillaries of 3 µ m. This phenomenon dependson cellular geometry, internal viscosity and theviscoelastic properties of the membrane. From thevarious techniques of erythrocyte deformabilityanalysis, such as micropipette aspiration, filtration andreoscopy, we chose ectacytometry. This technique usesa laminar flow viscosimetry, where erythrocyte shapechanges are continuously monitored by laser,processed by a computer and inserted in a graph forlater analysis. Ectacytometry measures the“Deformability Index”, which shows the size ofelliptocytogenesis of the erythrocyte under “shear stress”force. Iron deficiency anemia is a very frequent diseasein medical practice. It presents expressive morphologicalterations such as microcytosis, hypochromia,ovalocytosis, elliptocytosis and target cells. Erythrocytedeformability has been described in a number ofsituations such in hereditary spherocytosis, hereditaryelliptocytosis and autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Inrespect to iron deficiency anemia, reports arecontroversial. The present study evaluates erythrocytedeformability, using ectacytometry in 21 patientsdocumented as having iron deficiency before and aftertherapy with iron components. Although the anemiatreatment proved to be efficient (before Hb – 8.52 g/dL and after Hb - 12.74 g/dL), some patients persistedwith erythrocyte morphologic alterations. Resultsdemonstrate diminished erythrocyte deformability inpeople with iron deficiency anemia, when comparedwith the control group (p< 0.0007). The absence ofregularization and maintenance of a statisticaldifference after treatment (p< 0.03) in low “shear stress”Avaliacao: