Red blood cell (RBC) elongation index (EI) response to shear stress (SS), immediately following SS exposure to given levels of SS (1, 4, 16, 32, 64 Pa) for various periods of time (1, 4, 16, 32 and 64 s). RBC suspensions not previously exposed to SS represent the control (Con) condition. The second derivative of the EI--SS relation for each condition is presented under the EI--SS curves (left ordinate). Small letters on curve indicate significant differences: a, 64 Pa significantly different from Con; b, 32 Pa significantly different from Con; c, 16 Pa significantly different from Con; d, 4 Pa significantly different from Con; e, 1 Pa significantly different from Con. P values provided in-text.