title: Red blood cell distribution width and iron deficiency anemia among pregnant Sudanese women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a major health problem during pregnancy and it has adverse effects on the mother and the newborn. Red cell distribution width (RDW), which is a quantitative measure for red cell size variation (anisocytosis), is a predictor of IDA. Little is known regarding RDW and IDA during pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross sectional study was conducted at the antenatal clinic of Khartoum Hospital, Sudan, to determine the performance of RDW in the diagnosis of IDA using serum ferritin as a gold standard.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 194 pregnant women with a gestational period of 21.4 ± 6.5 weeks, 57 (29.4%) had IDA according to serum ferritin levels (<15 μg/l) and 61 (31.4%) had IDA according to RDW (>14.5). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of RDW where serum ferritin was the gold standard were 43.8% (95% CI: 31.4-57.0%), 73.7% (95% CI: 65.8-80.5%), 41.0% (95% CI: 29.2-53.6%), and 76.0% (95% CI: 68.1-82.6%), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, we found that RDW has a poor performance in diagnosing IDA among pregnant women compared with serum ferritin as the gold standard.
authors.affiliation: Khartoum Teaching Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan
authors.forename: Esam G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Abdelrahman
authors.forename: Gasim I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Gasim
authors.forename: Imad R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Musa
authors.forename: Leana M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Elbashir
authors.forename: Ishag
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Adam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018798:Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004909:Erythrocyte Indices; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000097:blood; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011250:Pregnancy Complications, Hematologic / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013397:Sudan; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005293:Ferritins