Front microrheology of the viscosity of blood infected by malaria

Abstract

We develop a mathematical model to characterize Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids and compute their viscosity. Experimental data of mice blood infected by Plasmodium yoelii is analysed in order to obtain its viscosity. A comparison between different periods of infection is made with a view to determine viscosity changes throughout the disease advance. The results are also compared with non-infected human blood viscosity values to study how malaria affects the viscosity Results successfully correlate with the already known viscoelastic changes of malaria-infected red blood cells