Red Blood Cell Distribution Width is Associated with Glomerulonephritis in Diabetic Patients with Albuminuria.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to explore predictive factors to inform accurate diagnosis of glomerulonephritis (GNs) in patients with diabetes. MATERIAL AND METHODS Clinical characteristics and laboratory data were retrospectively analyzed from 200 patients with diabetes including 115 patients who had undergone a renal biopsy. Eligible patients were categorized into three groups: pure type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), isolated diabetic nephropathy (DN), and GN. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to evaluate the contributions of predictive factors for GN. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was created to obtain cut-off values for predictive factors for GNs and investigate their corresponding predictive accuracy. RESULTS Red cell distribution width (RDW) was significantly higher in the GN group than in the DN group. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that baseline RDW level (OR=1.988, 95% CI=1.237~3.194, P=0.005) was an independent predictive factor for development of GNs. CONCLUSIONS Increased RDW levels are independently associated with a greater risk of GN in patients with diabetes who have albuminuria, and may be an additional valuable and noninvasive predictive tool for differentiating GNs and DN.