title: Relationship between red blood cell distribution width and intermediate-term mortality in elderly patients after percutaneous coronary intervention.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Large-scale clinical research on the relationship between red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and intermediate-term prognosis in elderly patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) is lacking. Thus, this study investigated the effects of RDW on the intermediate-term mortality of elderly patients who underwent elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from 1891 patients ≥ 65 years old underwent elective PCI from July 2009 to September 2011 were collected. Based on preoperative median RDW (12.3%), the patients were divided into two groups. The low RDW group (RDW < 12.3%) had 899 cases; the high RDW group (RDW ≥ 12.3%) had 992 cases. The all-cause mortality rates of the two groups were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients in the high RDW group were more likely to be female and accompanied with diabetes, had lower hemoglobin level. The mean follow-up period was 527 days. During follow-up, 61 patients died (3.2%). The postoperative mortality of the high RDW group was significantly higher than that of the low RDW group (4.3% vs. 2.0%, P = 0.004). After adjusting other factors, multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that preoperative high RDW was significantly associated with postoperative all-cause mortality (hazard ratio: 2.301, 95% confidence interval: 1.106-4.785, P = 0.026).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increased RDW was an independent predictor of the increased intermediate-term all-cause mortality in elderly CAD patients after elective PCI.
authors: Department of Cardiology, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.
authors: Xin-Min
authors: XM
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Cardiology, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.
authors: Chang-Sheng
authors: CS
authors: Ma
authors: Department of Cardiology, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.
authors: Xiao-Hui
authors: XH
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Cardiology, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.
authors: Xin
authors: X
authors: Du
authors: Department of Cardiology, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.
authors: Jun-Ping
authors: JP
authors: Kang
authors: Department of Cardiology, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.
authors: Yin
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Cardiology, Beijing An Zhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100029, China.
authors: Jia-Hui
authors: JH
authors: Wu
keywords: Coronary artery disease; Elderly patients; Percutaneous coronary intervention; Red blood cell distribution width