Hemorheological disorders in structural and functional parameters of erythrocytes are involved in the pathological process in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).
Aim: to investigate the feasibility of differential diagnosis of the degrees of rheological disturbances in patients with type 2 DM by dielectrophoresis of erythrocytes.
Methods: 62 subjects (58.7 ± 1.6 years) with type 2 DM diagnosed according to the criteria of the ADA were subdivided into two groups: medium (n = 47) and high (n = 15) risk of microcirculatory disturbances (EASD, 2013). Electric and viscoelastic parameters of erythrocytes were determined by dielectrophoresis using an electric optical system of cell detection.
Results: the progression of rheological disturbances in the patients with type 2 DM was accompanied by significant decreases in deformation amplitude; dipole moment; polarizability; and membrane capacity; and increases in conductivity, viscosity, rigidity, hemolysis, and formation of aggregates (p < 0.05). Combined use of the parameters increased sensitivity (97.8%) and specificity (86.7%) for diagnosis of rheological disturbances in type 2 DM.
Conclusion: the proposed experimental approach possesses low invasiveness, high productivity, shorter duration, vividness of the results. The method allows to evaluate not only local (renal and ocular) but also systemic status of microcirculation using more than 20 parameters of erythrocytes.
Keywords: diabetes mellitus; diagnostic method; dielectrophoresis; erythrocyte; rheology; severity of disturbances.