The use of nickel and polycarbonate filters to assess erythrocyte filterability in control subjects and diabetic patients

The performance of nickel and polycarbonate micropore filters (both with 5μm pore diameters) were compared using two different blood filtration methods in control and diabetic subjects. Significant differences were detected between these subject groups with nickel filters but not with polycarbonate filters. The coefficients of variation with both filtration methods were lower with the nickel filters, possibly due to their better pore geometry. It is concluded that Veco nickel filters are superior to Nucleopore polycarbonate filters when assessing blood filtration in clinical studies.