Red cell distribution width is associated with acute myocardial infarction in young patients.

BACKGROUND There are few studies about predictors of ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in young patients. High red cell distribution width (RDW) levels were associated with adverse outcomes in patients with STEMI. We aimed to investigate the relationship between RDW and STEMI in young patients. METHODS This study included 370 patients who presented to our hospital with acute myocardial infarction (Group 1: 198 young patients, 〈 45 ages for male, 〈 55 ages for female, Group 2: 172 elderly patients) and 156 adults with normal coronary angiography as a control group (Group 3: 91 young patients, 〈 45 ages for male, 〈 55 ages for female, Group 4: 65 elderly patients). RESULTS Compared with Group 3, Group 1 had a significantly higher value of RDW (Group 1 RDW 14.1 ± 1.1%, Group 3 RDW 13.4 ± 0.9, p1 〈 0.01). Value of RDW was similar both of Group 2 and 4 (Group 2 RDW 13.7 ± 1.2, Group 4 RDW 13.5 ± 0.9, p2 = 0.1). After multivariate analysis, high levels of RDW were independent predictors of STEMI in young patients (OR: 0.337, p 〈 0.01) together with gender (OR: 3.725, p 〈 0.01), history of hyperlipidemia (OR: 25.172, p 〈 0.01) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR: 1.088, p 〈 0.01). CONCLUSIONS High levels of RDW were associated with STEMI in young patients. We think that RDW is a widely available marker with no additional costs, in contrast to other novel markers of cardiovascular risk.