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Review
. 2017 Jun 23;2(3):172-175.
doi: 10.1136/svn-2017-000071. eCollection 2017 Sep.

Red blood cell distribution width and ischaemic stroke

Gang-Hua Feng  1 , Hai-Peng Li  1 , Qiu-Li Li  1 , Ying Fu  2 , Ren-Bin Huang  1
Affiliations
Review

Red blood cell distribution width and ischaemic stroke

Gang-Hua Feng et al. Stroke Vasc Neurol. .

Abstract

The red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a measure of red blood cell (RBC) size heterogeneity, which is easily calculated by dividing the SD of erythrocyte volumes for the mean corpuscular volume. Recent reporter suggested that, besides haematological diseases and anaemia, many human disorders may be closely associated with the elevated RDW. A literature review has revealed the RDW may be closely related to the development of ischaemic stroke, carotid artery atherosclerosis and cerebral embolism. Higher RDW could independently predict adverse outcomes in patients in these conditions.

Keywords: Red blood cell distribution width (RDW); carotid artery atherosclerosis (CAS); cerebral embolism; ischaemic stroke.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

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