Electronic Microscopic Observation And Meanings Of Morphologic And Aggregative Changes Of Erythrocyte In Hypertension

Objective The electronic microscopy has been used to observe the morphologic and aggregative changes of erythrocyte in hypertension in order to evaluate the significance of the changes.Methods Two groups were studied: Group 1 consisted of 10 hypertensives (6 males and 4 females, aged 56.5 7.7 years). This group was of medium risk according to WHO and ISH (1999) without diabetes, coronary heart disease, hyperlipoidemia. Group 2 was made up of 4 healthy subjects (2 males and 2 females, aged 45 8.9 years).Venous blood specimens were examined by scanning electronic microscope(SEM) and transmissible electronic microscope(TEM).Erythrocyte specific surface was measured by quadratic test grid.Results Under SEM, percentages of in hypertension patients are 98.12% 9.3%, 0.82% 0.2%, 0.63% 0.1% and 0.43% 0.2%, respectively, in contract to healthy peoples with 95.36% 8.6%, 2.17% 1.1%, 1.89% 0.62% and 0.58% 0.3%.The P<0.05 between two groups.There is a increase in erythrocyte aggregation in hypertension, especially in which with left ventricular hypertrophy.Under TEM, the percentages of dumbbell-like erythrocyte in hypertension are decreased, compared with that of controls(0.67 0.08% vs 0.79% 0.05 %, P<0.01).The erythrocyte specific surface of hypertensive group is smaller than that of control group(l .5 0.3 m-1 vs 1.8 0.4 m-1, P<0.05). The study also shows a increase in erythrocyte aggregation in hypertension, especially in which with left ventricular hypertrophy.Conclusions (i).The percentages of erythrocyte with abnormal shape in hypertension are higher than that of healthy peoples , and erythrocyte specific surface of hypertensives are smaller than that of controls, showing erythrocyte swelling.(ii). Thereis a increase in erythrocyte aggregation in hypertension, especially in which with left ventricular hypertrophy.The results indicate that morphologic and aggregative changes of erythrocyte in hypertension are possibely one of the causes of the decrease of erythrocyte deformability.