Relationship between red cell distribution width and serum c reactive protein levels in maintenance hemodialysis patients

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the relationship between RDW and serum CRP levels in maintenance hemodialysis patients. We enrolled 112 eligible maintenance hemodialysis patients in this retrospective study. Two groups were i dentified according to red cell distribution width (RDW) values: patients with normal RDW (RDW < 14.5%) and patients with elevated RDW (RDW ≥ 14.5%). Spearman correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were used to investigate the relationship between the study parameters. The only statistically significant difference between two groups was serum CRP levels (p= 0.007). Se rum albumin levels had significant but weak inverse correlation with serum CRP levels (r=-0.257, p= 0.006). RDW values had significant but weak positive correlation with serum CRP levels (r= 0.289, p= 0.002). We did not found a significant correlation bet ween hemoglobin levels and serum CRP levels and serum ferritin levels and serum CRP levels (p= 0.090 and p= 0.664, respectively). We made multivariate linear regression analysis and RDW was detected as the only independently associated factor for serum CRP levels (p= 0.028). We found that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between CRP and RDW in maintenance hemodialysis patients. We also showed a significant relationship between RDW and serum CRP levels. We concluded that RDW can be used as an inflammatory marker for hemodialysis patients.