Division of Dermatology, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain.
Division of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Tenerife, Spain.
Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2024 Sep;42(9):1773-1780. doi: 10.55563/clinexprheumatol/f0jnnm. Epub 2024 May 17.
Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a measure of variability in mean corpuscular volume. Alterations in RDW can be observed in a variety of human disorders, including inflammatory, cardiovascular, and hepatic or renal diseases. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease that can affect virtually any organ in the body. In this work, our objective was to analyse how a complete characterisation of disease characteristics in a large series of patients with SLE is related to RDW values.
284 patients with SLE and 181 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited. Complete blood count including RDW was assessed. Multivariable analysis was performed to analyse the relationship between RDW and SLE disease characteristics, including composite scores of disease activity and damage.
After multivariable adjustment, RDW was higher in patients with SLE compared to controls (beta coefficient 0.8 [95% confidence interval: 0.3-1] %, p=0.003). Several disease characteristics, such as the presence of extractable nuclear antibodies and antiphospholipid syndrome, and the use of prednisone and azathioprine, were significantly associated with higher levels of RDW after adjustment for confounders. Of note, cumulative disease damage and disease activity scores were associated with higher RDW values after controlling for covariates.
RDW may serve as a surrogate biomarker of accrual disease damage and activity in patients with SLE.
红细胞分布宽度（RDW）是红细胞平均体积变异性的度量。RDW 的改变可在多种人类疾病中观察到，包括炎症、心血管、肝或肾疾病。系统性红斑狼疮（SLE）是一种慢性自身免疫性疾病，几乎可影响体内任何器官。在这项工作中，我们的目的是分析在大量 SLE 患者中对疾病特征的全面描述与 RDW 值之间的关系。
招募了 284 例 SLE 患者和 181 名年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者。评估了包括 RDW 在内的全血细胞计数。进行多变量分析以分析 RDW 与 SLE 疾病特征之间的关系，包括疾病活动和损伤的综合评分。
经过多变量调整，SLE 患者的 RDW 高于对照组（β系数 0.8[95%置信区间：0.3-1]%，p=0.003）。几种疾病特征，如存在可提取核抗体和抗磷脂综合征，以及使用泼尼松和硫唑嘌呤，在调整混杂因素后与更高的 RDW 水平显著相关。值得注意的是，在控制协变量后，累积疾病损伤和疾病活动评分与更高的 RDW 值相关。
RDW 可能是 SLE 患者累积疾病损伤和活动的替代生物标志物。
