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Published on: August 8, 2025
Red cell distribution width in anemic patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation
Katharina Hellhammer1, Tobias Zeus1, Pablo E Verde1
1Katharina Hellhammer, Tobias Zeus, Verena Veulemanns, Lisa Kahlstadt, Georg Wolff, Ralf Erkens, Ralf Westenfeld, Eliano P Navarese, Marc W Merx, Tienush Rassaf, Malte Kelm, Division of Cardiology, Pulmonology and Vascular Medicine, Medical Faculty, University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
Aim:
To determine the impact of red blood cell distribution width on outcome in anemic patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).
Methods:
In a retrospective single center cohort study we determined the impact of baseline red cell distribution width (RDW) and anemia on outcome in 376 patients with aortic stenosis undergoing TAVI. All patients were discussed in the institutional heart team and declined for surgical aortic valve replacement due to high operative risk. Collected data included patient characteristics, imaging findings, periprocedural in hospital data, laboratory results and follow up data. Blood samples for hematology and biochemistry analysis were taken from every patient before and at fixed intervals up to 72 h after TAVI including blood count and creatinine. Descriptive statistics were used for patient's characteristics. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used for time to event outcomes. A recursive partitioning regression and classification was used to investigate the association between potential risk factors and outcome variables.
Results:
Mean age in our study population was 81 ± 6.1 years. Anemia was prevalent in 63.6% (n = 239) of our patients. Age and creatinine were identified as risk factors for anemia. In our study population, anemia per se did influence 30-d mortality but did not predict longterm mortality. In contrast, a RDW > 14% showed to be highly predictable for a reduced short- and longterm survival in patients with aortic valve disease after TAVI procedure.
Conclusion:
Age and kidney function determine the degree of anemia. The anisocytosis of red blood cells in anemic patients supplements prognostic information in addition to that derived from the WHO-based definition of anemia.
