Abstract
The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) measures the variability in the size of circulating erythrocytes. Previous studies suggested a powerful correlation between RDW obtained from a standard complete blood count and cardiovascular diseases in both primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention. The current study aimed to evaluate the prognostic role of RDW in patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial revascularization and/or cardiac valve surgery. The study included 1.031 patients with available RDW levels, prospectively followed for a mean of 4.5 ± 3.5 years. The mean age was 68 ± 12 years, the mean RDW was 14.7 ± 1.8%; 492 patients (48%) underwent cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial revascularization, 371 (36%) after cardiac valve surgery, 102 (10%) after valve-plus-coronary artery by-pass graft surgery, 66 (6%) for other indications. Kaplan–Meier analysis and Cox hazard analysis were used to associate RDW with mortality. Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated worse survival curves free from overall (log-rank p < 0.0001) and cardiovascular (log-rank p < 0.0001) mortality in the highest RDW tertile. Cox analysis showed RDW levels correlated significantly with the probability of overall (HR 1.26; 95% CI 1.19–1.32; p < 0.001) and cardiovascular (HR 1.31; 95% CI 1.23–1.40; p < 0.001) mortality. After multiple adjustments for cardiovascular risk factors, hemoglobin, hematocrit, C-reactive protein, microalbuminuria, atrial fibrillation, glomerular filtration rate,left ventricular ejection fraction and number of exercise training sessions attended, the increased risk of overall (HR 1.10; 95% CI 1.01–1.27; p = 0.039) and cardiovascular (HR 1.13; 95% CI 1.01–1.34; p = 0.036)mortality with increasing RDW values remained significant. The RDW represents an independent predictor of overall and cardiovascular mortality in secondary cardiovascular prevention patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation.
Highlights
The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) measures the variability in the size of circulating erythrocytes
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test revealed significant differences among subgroups (p < 0.001) being the RDW value in the coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) subgroup (14.5 ± 1.8%) significantly lower than in the valve surgery subgroup (14.8 ± 1.9%, p = 0.012), in the combined valve-and-CABG surgery subgroup (15.2 ± 1.8%, p = 0.002) as well as in the subgroup operated for other clinical indications (15.2 ± 1.9%, p = 0.002)
Our study is among the few investigating the predictive value of RDW after a period of cardiac rehabilitation following cardiac surgery in both ischemic and valve disease patients
Summary
The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) measures the variability in the size of circulating erythrocytes. Previous studies suggested a powerful correlation between RDW obtained from a standard complete blood count and cardiovascular diseases in both primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention. The current study aimed to evaluate the prognostic role of RDW in patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial revascularization and/or cardiac valve surgery. The RDW represents an independent predictor of overall and cardiovascular mortality in secondary cardiovascular prevention patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation. Red blood cell distribution width (RDW), obtained from a standard complete blood count, represents a measure of the variability in size of circulating erythrocytes and is indicated as the coefficient of variation of the erythrocyte size[1]. No studies have so far evaluated whether RDW may play a role in the long-term outcome of patients undergoing cardiac rehabilitation programme after cardiac surgery; the present work aimed to elucidate this issue
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