Blood investigation using the method of sensitive crystallisation according to E. Pfeiffer

The Pfeiffer sensitive crystallisation method uses whole blood and is based on the fact that when a salt crystallises from aqueous solution the growth of crystals is influenced by other components in the solution, for instance blood. Copper chloride (CuCl2.2H2O) has been shown to be particularly sensitive to this effect. If a mixture of copper chloride solution and a small quantity of whole blood (capillary blood hydrolysate) is left to crystallise on a level glass plate under controlled experimental conditions, a crystal aggregate appears that is specific for the blood added. The result is reproducible and is referred to as the blood crystallisation picture (BCP).

As a result of many blood investigations, relationships have been empirically established between the BCP phenomenon and various disease processes. The individual morphological features and the overall form of the crystallisation caused by the added blood point to illnesses such as inflammation processes or tumour formations. In addition to the disease-specific character of the crystal forms, their position in the growth-field of the crystallisation is important. This indicates which organ or organ system is affected by the illness.

Decades of experimental investigations have shown that the morphological features of the crystallisation are an expression of not only diseases already manifesting clinically but also of tendencies to disease. Thus blood crystallisation can inform the clinician about disease processes and their early stages. This is of particular significance, for instance, in the development of carcinoma. Furthermore, the method has proved its worth in testing therapeutic treatments.

Blood crystallisation lies outside the usual framework of medical diagnostic methods in that it is not a test procedure in the real sense. The patients are not tested for cancer or other diseases. The result of the investigation is not primarily a pointer to clinically manifesting bodily chan-ges in the sense of pathological anatomy, for which there already exist good imaging methods. BCP is in the first instance a pictorial expression of both dispositions to disease and the state of the patient's reaction at the level of organ functions.

Just as a symptom of illness only gains significance through the context in which it appears, so also can the interpretation of a BCP take place more meaningfully the more it is considered in connection with the patient's symptoms already known to the clinician (which he/she communicates to us). Knowing this context turns the phenomena into a picture, the crystallisate into a crystallisation picture. As different illnesses can express themselves in similar ways in the crystallisation picture, the patient data do not in the end help in placing the disturbances observed in the correct perspective for interpretation. We are very much aware of the danger of reading too much into the picture as a result of the information received from the clinician. However, a meaningful pictorial study and characterisation of the gesture of a crystallisation pattern has the prerequisite that one is 'in the picture' regarding the patients. Because of this we normally do not do blind investigations.

We regard BCP as above all supplementing analytical findings because, as a picture, it is inherently holistic, i.e., visualising functional conditions of the human organism and early stages of pathological processes. It can be used to aid diagnosis but it does not constitute the diagnosis per se. This only arises from the complete picture of all the findings. The crystallisation fin-dings can never alone provide guidance for therapeutic intervention. For this reason we prefer not to give advice on therapy and indeed cannot.

The investigation will be carried out only at the request of a doctor and our report will be sent to the doctor concerned unless he/she decides otherwise.

Haijo Knijpenga (Dipl.-Chem.)

Dr.med. Damian Quero

Sensitive Crystallisation Laboratory

Hügelweg 64 - Postfach

CH-4143 Dornach 1

Fon +41-61-706 43 63

Fax +41-61-706 43 66

kristallisation(at)goetheanum.ch