Inversion of ultrasonic scattering data for red blood cell suspensions under different flow conditions.

Recent results for low-frequency scattering by correlated random distributions of nonspherical particles averaged over orientation are applied to invert ultrasonic data for red blood cell suspensions under different flow conditions. The inversion procedure isolates a correlation parameter (c) representing a process in which the volume fraction (w) of particles increases linearly, and also a cell population parameter P. Reduced data records of scattering versus hematocrit are compared with S(c;w)P, where the generalized fluctuation function S is proportional to the variance in particle number, and P is proportional to the backscattering cross section of an isolated particle. The peak scattering for the different flow processes occurs at values of w ranging from about 0.15 for the most uniform to 0.25 for the least, corresponding to c values of about 2.1 to 0.4, as compared with w approximately equal to 0.13 and c = 3 for hard (repulsive at contact) spheres or aligned ellipsoids. The lower values of c suggest weaker repulsion between the deformable cells and effective interparticle attraction (aggregative trends), and c approximately equal to 2 may also involve flow alignment of the discoids.