Impact of anemia on the association between red cell distribution width and 1-year mortality in acute heart failure...

Different accessible and low-cost biomarkers have been investigated to stratify patients with acute heart failure (AHF). One of them is the red cell distribution width (RDW), which proved to be a greater prognostic marker of mortality than other conventional markers.

Therefore, the objective of our study is to determine whether the anemic status modifies the magnitude of association between high RDW and 1-year mortality in patients with AHF.

Observational, analytical, retrospective cohort study.

We included participants ⩾18 years old hospitalized with a diagnosis of AHF. As an association measure, a crude and adjusted generalized linear model of the Poisson family calculated the risk ratio (RR) with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI).

In all, 709 participants with an average age of 73.48 years were included. At 1 year, the risk of dying was three times higher with high RDW (RR = 3.05, 95% CI: 1.39-6.66; p < 0.01). In anemic participants, the risk of dying at 1 year is two times greater with high RDW (RR = 2.18, 95% CI: 0.91-5.22; p = 0.07), while in non-anemic participants, the risk of dying increased almost seven times (RR = 6.95, 95% CI: 1.65-29.23; p < 0.01).

High RDW is a risk factor for mortality at 1 year in patients with AHF. A greater magnitude of association was found in non-anemic patients.