Clinical usefulness of measuring red blood cell distribution width on admission in patients with acute coronary syndromes

Abstract

Background: Conventional cardiac markers used for the biochemical diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) have a high specificity but low sensitivity within 2-4 h of symptoms onset. The red blood cell distribution width (RDW), reflecting the size variability of circulating red blood cells, has been shown to be independently associated with an increased risk of major cardiovascular events. We assessed whether there is an association between RDW at admission and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) elevation in patients with chest pain.

Methods: We analyzed RDW values in 2304 adult patients, who were consecutively admitted over a 1-year period to the local emergency department for chest pain suggestive of ACS. In all patients, a baseline blood sample was collected for routine haematological testing, whereas cTnT was measured at baseline and after 4, 6, and 12 h.

Results: A total of 456 patients (19.8% of total) had ACS. These patients, all having cTnT> or =0.03 microg/L up to 12 h from admission other than ischaemic electrocardiographic changes, had higher RDW than non-ACS patients [median 15.1%, (5th-95th percentiles) 13.2%-19.0% vs. 13.5%, 12.9%-17.1%, p<0.001]. On admission, the sensitivity and specificity of cTnT were 94% (25 false negative results) and 100%, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of RDW, as calculated by the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, was 0.705 (p<0.001). At the cut-off value of 14%, the clinical sensitivity and specificity of RDW on admission were 79% and 50%, respectively. In 21 out of 25 patients classified as false negative for cTnT on admission, the RDW was >14%. Accordingly, the diagnostic sensitivity of the two combined measurements on admission was 99%.

Conclusions: As RDW is widely available to clinicians as a part of the complete blood count, and therefore incurs no additional costs, it might be considered with other conventional cardiac markers for the risk stratification of ACS patients admitted to emergency departments.