Determination of the hematocrit of human blood from the spectral values of the coefficients of extinction and small-angle scattering

An easily automated method for the determination of the hematocrit C _V of human blood from the extinction and small-angle scattering coefficients measured at radiation wavelengths of 0.37, 0.76, and 0.98 μm of semiconductor laser sources is proposed. The method does not require the solution of inverse problems and a priori information on the refractive index of erythrocytes. The effects that the measurement errors of the optical characteristics of blood, the dispersion of the refractive index, and the variations in the parameters of the distribution function of erythrocytes have on the determination accuracy of C _V are estimated. The possibility of determining C _V of whole blood is demonstrated.