Determination of the red blood cell ability to traverse cylindrical pores

An expression relating the red blood cell (RBC) volume and membrane surface area to the pore minimum radius/maximum length which the cell is able to traverse is derived. The application of this analytical model to design/specification of filters for RBC deformability evaluation is presented. The passage of the RBC's through relatively long (10 /spl mu/m or more) submicron radii pores, which the developed model demonstrates, is also discussed.