Abstract
Aim: Isolated coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is an abnormal dilatation of the coronary artery which cause ischemia. RDW has been investigated in several cardiovascular disorders and has also been recently proposed as a predictive biomarker of adverse outcomes in patients with these conditions. We hypothesized that increased RDW would be associated with isolated CAE because both are associated with inflammation.
 Material and Methods: We studied 140 subjects, including 69 patients with isolated CAE, 71 patients with angiographically normal controls. Baseline clinical characteristics and laboratory findings, including RDW, were compared among two groups.
 Results: The level of RDW was significantly higher in isolated CAE than normal controls (14,36±1,61vs 13,59±1.57, p=0.005). In addition, the levels of glomerular filtration rate and creatinin, high density lipoprotein and low density lipoprotein were significantly lower in isolated CAE than normal controls (76,43±19,64 vs 100,36±18,3 and 0,9±0,28 vs 0,74±0,25, 43,39±10,09 vs 48,4±13,67, 121,36±32,05 vs 143,70±55,33 p=0,001, p=0,001, p=0,01, p=0,004 respectively). In a ROC curve analysis, a RDW value of 13,5 was identified as an effective cut off point for the discrimination of the presence or absence of isolated CAE (Area Under curve [AUC]: 0.71, CI 95%, 0.62-0.80, p
Highlights
Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is defined as the abnormal dilatation of the epicardial coronary artery exceeding 1.5 times the normal adjacent coronary artery segments [1]
The red blood cell distribution width (RDW), part of a routine complete blood count, is a simple and inexpensive parameter, which reflects the degree of heterogeneity of erythrocyte volume, and is traditionally used in laboratory hematology for differential diagnosis of anemias [6]
The significant findings of the present study are the RDW levels, and advanced age was significantly higher in patients with isolated CAE than that in angiographically normal controls
Summary
Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is defined as the abnormal dilatation of the epicardial coronary artery exceeding 1.5 times the normal adjacent coronary artery segments [1]. It is a welldefined, pathological, non-obstructive finding of coronary arteries diagnosed by coronary angiography [2]. Previous studies have demonstrated that CAE could predispose to adverse coronary events like vasospasm, thrombosis, dissection, and even myocardial infarction [3,4], the underlying mechanisms responsible for this vascular disease are unknown. There are many reports showing an association between RDW and inflammation and neurohormonal and cardiovascular risk factors [13,14]
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