Association between red cell distribution width and the risk of heart events in patients with coronary artery disease

Red cell distribution width (RDW) has been found to be a novel prognostic biomarker in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD); however, the association between RDW and the risk of heart events in patients with CAD is yet to be fully elucidated. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine whether an elevated RDW was associated with the Framingham risk score (FRS) in patients with CAD. Data were retrospectively collected from Affiliated Dongyang Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University (Dongyang, China). The patients had undergone a coronary angiography and their clinical data were integrated. The patients (male, 260; female, 132) were divided into two groups based on the results of the coronary angiography, namely the CAD (n=283) and control groups (n=109). The FRS was calculated for all the subjects, and complete blood count testing with biochemical measurements was performed. The mean RDW level was 13.7±1.8% in the CAD group and 13.1±1.0% in the control group, while the mean FRS was 9.0±4.9 in the CAD group and 6.4±3.9 in the control group. The RDW and FRS were significantly higher in the CAD group compared with the control group (P<0.001). No statistically significant differences were observed between the groups with regard to the hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, platelets, glucose, urea, albumin, aspartate aminotransferase, total cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (P>0.05). The RDW was shown to significantly correlate with the red blood cell (RBC) count (r=-0.133, P=0.029), hemoglobin level (r=-0.207, P=0.001) and TG level (r=0.226, P<0.001) within the laboratory parameters, as well as the FRS (r=0.206, P<0.001). In the stepwise multivariate linear regression, which included the RBC count, hemoglobin level, TG level and RDW, the FRS was predicted by hemoglobin (r2=0.034, P=0.001), TG (r2=0.059, P<0.001) and RDW (r2=0.030, P=0.003) parameters. Therefore, a novel association was revealed between higher levels of RDW and an elevated FRS in patients with CAD, which raises the possibility that a simple marker, RDW, may be associated with an increased risk of heart events in CAD patients.