Séminaire Calcul Scientifique et Modélisation

A Coulter counter is an impedance measurement system widely used in blood analyzers to count and size red blood cells, thus providing information about the most numerous cells of the body. In Coulter counters, cells flow through a detection zone where an electric field is imposed, which is disturbed when a cell passes through. The number of these impedance signals yield the red blood cell count, while the cell volume is supposed to be proportional to the amplitude of the signals. However, in real systems, the red blood cells trajectories in the system does not allow to verify the assumptions necessary to provide an accurate volume measurement. For a few years, IMAG has been developing the YALES2BIO solver for the prediction of red blood cell dynamics under flow. In this presentation, I will describe the fluid-structure problem and the numerical method used, then share how numerical simulation has been used to understand the signals in industrial Coulter counters and to improve the measurements of red blood cell volumes rendered by such systems. In addition, I will discuss how the mechanical properties of RBCs impact the measurements. This work has been performed during the PhD theses of Pierre Taraconat and Pierre Pottier (Horiba Medical & IMAG).