title: Association between red blood cell distribution width and disease activity in patients with Behçet's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine associations between red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and organ involvement and disease activity in patients with Behçet's disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  Haematological and inflammatory parameters including RDW, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were examined in patients with Behçet's disease and in healthy controls. Patients were divided into those with active or inactive disease.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data from 236 patients with Behçet's disease (77 with active and 159 with inactive disease) and 72 controls were analysed. RDW, ESR and hsCRP were significantly higher in patients with Behçet's disease than in controls, and in those with active disease compared with inactive disease or controls. In addition, ESR and hsCRP were significantly higher in those with inactive disease than controls. No correlations were found between hsCRP, ESR and RDW. No differences were observed in RDW, ESR or hsCRP between patients with or without ocular or vascular involvement. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that RDW was significantly higher in active disease compared with inactive disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RDW was increased in active disease compared with inactive disease. No relationships were found between organ involvement and RDW. RDW may be a cost-effective, novel potential parameter to evaluate disease activity in Behçet's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey snuraksoy@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Şefika Nur
authors.initials: ŞN
authors.lastname: Aksoy
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Esen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Savaş
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sucu
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Bünyamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kisacik
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Seval
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kul
authors.affiliation: Department of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Orhan
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Zengin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003710:Demography; D004909:Erythrocyte Indices; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis
keywords: Behçet’s disease; C-reactive protein; Red blood cell distribution width; disease activity; erythrocyte sedimentation rate