The Polymer Society of Korea

Abstract

The Wet Capillary Thinning method is a microfluidics-based technique capable of measuring rheological properties. Coventional methods for measuring blood viscosity include the rotational method, CaBER and the scanning capillary tube method. However, these methods require large sample volumes and most technique can cause evaporation and sample degeneration of sample. To overcome these limitations, the WCT method is applied to blood viscosity measurement. By using microchannels, the WCT method significantly reduces the required sample volume. Moreover, because the experiment is conducted in the liquid phase, it prevents evaporation and degeneration of sample. Blood and a miscible fluid are co-injected to suppress diffusion and form a blood filament. In this study, the repeatability and reproducibility of the WCT method in measuring blood viscosity are evaluated. Furthermore, experiments are conducted with various non-blood fluids to demonstrate the generalizability of the method.