Important details about the red cell distribution width

Red Cell Distribution Width to Platelet Ratio Is Associated with Increasing In-Hospital Mortality in Critically Ill Patients with Acute Kidney Injury

Background. Inflammation plays a key role in the pathophysiology and progression of acute kidney injury (AKI). Red cell distribution width (RDW) to platelet ratio (RPR) is a novel inflammatory index, and its prognostic effect on critically ill patients with AKI is rarely investigated. This work is aimed at investigating the association between RPR and in-hospital mortality in these patients. Methods. Data were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III database. All-cause death during hospitalization was selected as the primary outcome. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the optimal cut-off value, and the area under the curve (AUC) was applied to compare predictive ability among different indices. Cox proportional hazard models were utilized to assess the association between RPR and in-hospital mortality. Restricted cubic spline analysis for multivariate Cox model was performed to explore the shape of the relationship between RPR and mortality. Results. A total of 24,166 critically ill patients with AKI were included. The relationship of RPR and in-hospital mortality was nonlinear with a trend to rise rapidly and then gradually. For mortality prediction, RPR had the optimal cut-off value of 0.093, of which the AUC was 0.791 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.773–0.810), which was higher than those of RDW, platelet, sequential organ failure assessment score, simplified acute physiology score II, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, and platelet to lymphocytes ratio. After adjustments for various confounders, high RPR showed a significant association with increased mortality with hazard ratios of 1.46 (95% CI: 1.40–1.55) for categorical variable and 1.88 (95% CI: 1.80–1.97) for continuous variables in the fully adjusted model. Conclusions. Elevated RPR on admission is substantially associated with high risk of in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients with AKI and thus may serve as a novel predictor of prognosis for these patients.

[Value of red blood cell distribution width-to-platelet count ratio in predicting the prognosis of children with sepsis]

OBJECTIVE

To study the value of red blood cell distribution width (RDW)-to-platelet count (PLT) ratio (RPR) on the first day of admission into the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in predicting the prognosis of children with sepsis.

METHODS

A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 186 children with sepsis who were hospitalized in the PICU. According to their prognosis, they were divided into a survival group with 151 children and a death group with 35 children. Clinical data were compared between the two groups. The Cox proportional-hazards regression model analysis was used to investigate the factors influencing the prognosis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the value of RPR in predicting death. The children were divided into a high RPR group and a low RPR group according to the optimal cut-off value, and the Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare the 28-day survival rate between the two groups.

RESULTS

Compared with the survival group, the death group had significantly higher RDW, procalcitonin (PCT) and RPR (P<0.05) and significantly lower PLT and albumin (ALB) (P<0.05). The Cox regression model analysis showed that low ALB, high PCT and high RPR were independent risk factors for the prognosis of children with sepsis (P<0.05). The ROC curve analysis showed that RPR had a certain value in predicting the prognosis of children with sepsis (P<0.05), with an area under the ROC curve of 0.937, an optimal cut-off value of 0.062, a sensitivity of 94.29%, and a specificity of 77.48%. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the high RPR group had a significantly lower 28-day survival rate than the low RPR group (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

RPR on the first day of admission into the PICU is closely associated with the prognosis of children with sepsis and has an important value in predicting the prognosis of children with sepsis.

The Role of Hematological Indices in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome

An increased systemic and local inflammation plays a key role in the pathophysiology of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). This review will discuss the role of hematological indices: white blood cells (WBC), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), red cell distribution width (RDW), and platelet indices, that is, platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), mean platelet volume (MPV), and platelet distribution width (PDW) in the case of ACS. In recent years, a strong interest has been drawn to these indices, given that they may provide independent information on pathophysiology, risk stratification, and optimal management. Their low-cost and consequent wide and easy availability in daily clinical practice have made them very popular in the laboratory testing. Furthermore, many studies have pointed at their effective prognostic value in all-cause mortality, major cardiovascular events, stent thrombosis, arrhythmias, and myocardial perfusion disorders in terms of acute myocardial infarction and unstable angina. The most recent research also emphasizes their significant value in the combined analysis with other markers, such as troponin, or with GRACE, SYNTAX, and TIMI scores, which improve risk stratification and diagnosis in ACS patients.

The Prognostic Role of Red Blood Cell Distribution Width in Coronary Artery Disease: A Review of the Pathophysiology

Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a measure of red blood cell volume variations (anisocytosis) and is reported as part of a standard complete blood count. In recent years, numerous studies have noted the importance of RDW as a predictor of poor clinical outcomes in the settings of various diseases, including coronary artery disease (CAD). In this paper, we discuss the prognostic value of RDW in CAD and describe the pathophysiological connection between RDW and acute coronary syndrome. In our opinion, the negative prognostic effects of elevated RDW levels may be attributed to the adverse effects of independent risk factors such as inflammation, oxidative stress, and vitamin D₃ and iron deficiency on bone marrow function (erythropoiesis). Elevated RDW values may reflect the intensity of these phenomena and their unfavorable impacts on bone marrow erythropoiesis. Furthermore, decreased red blood cell deformability among patients with higher RDW values impairs blood flow through the microcirculation, resulting in the diminution of oxygen supply at the tissue level, particularly among patients suffering from myocardial infarction treated with urgent revascularization.