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Published on: December 15, 2023
Value of Red Cell Distribution Width in Assessing the Severity of Hepatitis B Virus-Related Decompensated Cirrhosis
Insights
Red cell distribution width (RDW) can effectively predict the severity of hepatitis B virus-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi). Elevated RDW levels in HBV-DeCi patients indicate a higher disease severity, offering a simple yet powerful biomarker for clinical assessment.
Area of Science:
- Hepatology
- Clinical Biochemistry
- Biomarker Discovery
Background:
- Hepatitis B virus infection is a primary cause of liver cirrhosis in China.
- Accurate assessment of disease severity in hepatitis B-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi) is crucial for patient management.
- Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a potential indicator of disease severity across various conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the correlation between Red cell distribution width (RDW) and the severity of hepatitis B virus-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi).
- To determine if RDW can serve as a predictive biomarker for HBV-DeCi severity.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of 172 patients diagnosed with HBV-DeCi.
- Patients were stratified into three groups based on RDW values.
- Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis and binary logistic regression were employed to assess predictive performance and identify independent risk factors.
Main Results:
- RDW levels were significantly higher in HBV-DeCi patients compared to healthy controls (18.00% ± 0.04 vs. 13.19% ± 0.74, p < 0.001).
- A significant association was observed between RDW groups and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) scores (p = 0.002).
- RDW demonstrated high predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.969) with a cutoff of >14.0% (sensitivity 90.7%, specificity 100.0%); combined with MELD score, AUC reached 0.997.
Conclusions:
- Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a simple and effective biomarker for predicting the severity of hepatitis B virus-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi).
- RDW can serve as an independent risk factor for assessing HBV-DeCi severity.
- The combination of RDW and MELD score offers enhanced predictive capability for HBV-DeCi severity.
Background:
Hepatitis B virus infection is the main reason for liver cirrhosis in China. Thus, evaluating the disease severity of hepatitis B-related decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi) is very important. The red cell distribution width (RDW) is thought to be correlated with the severity of various diseases. The purpose of this investigation is to verify whether RDW can estimate the disease severity of HBV-DeCi.
Methods:
This retrospective study included 172 subjects who had been diagnosed with HBV-DeCi. They were categorized into three groups on the basis of their RDW values. Receiver operating curve (ROC) was used to estimate the severity predictive performances and binary logistic regression was used to assess the independent variable predicting the severity of liver disease.
Results:
The RDW values were evidently increased in the HBV-DeCi patients in comparison with the healthy controls (18.00% ± 0.04 vs. 13.19% ± 0.74, p < 0.001). There was also a significant difference in the model for endstage liver disease score of the three different RDW groups of A, B and C (13.2 ± 4.6, 16.0 ± 9.0, and 18.8 ± 6.5, p = 0.002). The RDW was an independent risk factor of the severity of HBV-DeCi. The cutoff level for RDW was > 14.0%, where the sensitivity and specificity were 90.7%, 100.0%, respectively, and the area under the curve (AUC) of ROC was 0.969. For a combination of RDW and MELD score, the AUC was 0.997, and the sensitivity and specificity were 98.3% and 99.1%, respectively.
Conclusions:
The RDW is a simple biomarker that may play an important role in predicting the severity of HBVDeCi.
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