Title: A Cross sectional study on the Role of Red cell distribution width as a tool to assess the severity of chronic liver disease in a tertiary care hospital
Authors: Dr Anyam Lavanya, Dr B. Ashok Babu, Dr K. Sudheer
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v10i12.18
Abstract
Introduction
Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a measurement of the range of RBC volume, size variation and an index of the heterogeneity of circulating RBCs. It is a well-established parameter for identifying the cause of anemia. In the presence of morphologic anisocytosis, RDW (normally 11-24%) increased to 15-18%. In microcytic anemia, it is used to differentiate between iron deficiency and thalassemia in which the former has large RDW and in the later, though the red cells are small are generally uniform in size with a normal small RDW. Large RDW also indicate a dimorphic anemia in case of chronic atrophic gastritis that produce both vitamin B12 malabsorption and deficiency to cause macrocytic anemia and blood loss to cause iron deficiency.1 RDW has been indicated to be an inflammatory indicator for prognosis in a variety of diseases.2,3
Aim of the Study
The aim of the study was to compare the values of RDW in alcoholic and non-alcoholic chronic liver disease and to determine if RDW follows the severity of disease according to Child-Pugh score severity and MELD-Na score.
