The Red Blood Cell Distribution Width in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease or Hypertension

Objective To observe the changes of red blood cell distribution width (RDW) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) or hypertension.Methods Two hundred and eighty-seven CHD patients diagnosed by coronary angiography and 286 hypertensive patients were selected from Jun.2007 to Jun.2008.Three hundred and two healthy adults were enrolled as control group.Red blood cell count,hemoglobin and RDW were detected by full automatic hemocyte analyzer.Results No difference in RDW between hypertension patients and normotensives[(12.9±0.6)% vs (13.0±0.7)%,P0.05],while the RDW in CHD patients was significantly increased[(13.2±0.8)%,both P0.05].Gender analysis found that there was no differences of the male RDW among three groups.However,the RDW of female CHD group was higher than that of female hypertension and normal groups[(13.5±0.8)% vs (13.0±0.6)% vs (13.1±0.8)%,both P0.05].The RDW of female CHD patients was higher than that of male CHD patients[(13.5±0.8)% vs (13.1±0.7)%,P0.05].Correlation analysis showed RDW was weakly,and negatively associated with hemoglobin (r=-0.22,P0.01) in CHD group.Conclusion The RDW was in normal range in hypertensive patients,while the RDW in CHD patients especially in female was significantly increased.