Blood Viscosity

Knowing the blood viscosity of your patient provides you with a critical tool in determining the efficiency and health of the circulatory system.  With a clearer picture of your patient's circulatory efficiency, you can more accurately determine what type of goals and treatment programs your patient may need to minimize the risk of having a major cardiovascular event.

Blood viscosity testing monitors changes in the amount of solids present in blood plasma.  This data provides a measure of the blood’s inherent ability to flow.

Since the circulatory system is a closed system, the viscosity or thickness of what the heart is pumping can play a crucial role in determining the workload of the heart.  An increase in blood viscosity will require the heart to work harder in order to provide the same level of perfusion to the tissues and organs of the body.  An overworked heart is an inefficient heart – one that is more likely to become enlarged and ultimately fail.

Blood viscosity determines not only how hard the heart has to work to circulate the blood, but also the level of physical injury that the blood can cause to the inner walls of the arteries.  Thick blood is abrasive and can trigger the inflammatory process that leads to atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerotic plaques do not form uniformly throughout the body.  They are found in the large arteries that feed the heart and brain, which are close to the heart and absorb the abrasive injury caused by thick blood as it is punched out of the left ventricle.  Plaques are also found in the arteries of the legs, where, because of the pull of gravity in a person standing upright, the blood is accelerated and increases the shear stress against the femoral arteries.

Elevated blood viscosity is the only parameter that explains why atherosclerotic stenosis occurs in certain regions of the body and not in others.  Measuring your patient’s blood viscosity enables you to determine the ability of your patient’s blood to flow and the physical injury that the blood can inflict on the arterial walls.  This can give you an additional level of insight in prescribing and monitoring a treatment regimen that optimizes circulatory health.