Clinical Significance of the Relationship Between D-dimer and Erythrocyte Distribution Width in Covid-19 Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a marker that can be used in the presence of systemic inflammation and evaluating thromboembolic condition.We aimed to evaluate the relationship between RDW and the level of D-dimer known as related to adverse events in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in this study. Methods: One hundred twenty two patients with COVID-19 and 62 healthy individuals with age and sex-matched were enrolled in the present study. The patients were divided into two groups based on evaluating their D-dimer level. The first group contained 45 patients with higher D-dimer level whereas the second group contained 77 patients with normal D-dimer level. Results: RDWvalues were found to be higher in patients with COVID-19 and higher D-dimer level than patients with normal D-dimer level and control group. These results were found to be statistically significant (P=0.006 and P=0.013, respectively). Among patients with COVID-19, a positive correlation was observed between RDW and D-dimer level (r=0.270, P=0.003). Among the various variables associated with higher D-dimer in multivariate logistic regression analyses, RDW detected an independent predictor of higher D-dimer in COVID-19 patients (95% CI: CI:0.322-0.979, P=0.042). Conclusion: The results indicated that high RDW values in patients with COVID-19 disease could be used as a marker in clinical follow-up of patients as D-dimer.