Relationship between red blood cell distribution width and intermediate-term mortality in elderly patients after percutaneous coronary intervention

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.