Skimming of microspheres in vitro: implications for measurement of intrarenal blood flow

Abstract

Skimming could result in erroneous estimation of renal cortical blood flow distribution as measured by microspheres. Skimming of microspheres with diameters 10, 12, and 15 micrometers and red blood cells was therefore studied in a model in which an interlobular artery and its first arteriolar branch were simulated by 80- and 30-micrometers-wide slits between glass prisms. The experiments were performed with citrated blood at a hematocrit (Hct) of 40, flow velocities of 3 and 6 cm/s, and branch flow varying from 2 to 25%. At a branch flow fraction comparable to that of a deep arteriole in the dog kidney (3%), Hct in branch blood was 24% lower than that of input blood, whereas 10-, 12-, and 15-micrometers microsphere concentrations were 75, 81, and 87% lower, respectively. The size-dependent skimming was probably caused by wall exclusion in the main channel. Differences in particle inertia did not affect skimming. The results suggest that the disparate local flow values obtained by use of microspheres of different sizes in dog and rat kidneys are due to a size-dependent skimming of the microspheres.