Investigation of the relationship between RDW and Prognosis of brain death

Investigation of the relationship between RDW and Prognosis of brain death

Sanaz Dehghani, Farzaneh Bagherpour, Amir Ali Hamidieh, Zeinab Mansouri, Niloufar Tirgar,  Fariba Namdar, Mojtaba Mohsenzadeh, Ehsan Javandoost, Mohammad Amir Amirkhani, Marzieh Latifi, Arefeh Jafarian ^*

 

Abstract

Background

Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that RDW may independently predict clinically important outcomes in many populations. However, the role of RDW has not been elucidated in brain dead. We conducted this study with the aim of evaluating the predictive value of RDW in brain dead.

Methods

A retrospective study of brain death cases during 36 months were evaluated at University Hospitals, affiliated with two main Organ procurement units in Iran. The baseline information included demographic data (age, sex, BMI), cause of brain death, and laboratory results (Red blood cell distribution, Mean Corpuscular Volume, Hemoglobin collected by checklists.

Results

The mean age of brain death cases was 32.65±16.53. RDW levels were constantly increasing throughout the study and there was a significant difference between each time point of RDW measurement. RDW level at the time of brain death was 0.45 fold higher (p=0.002) compared to the time of admission, and additionally 0.8 fold higher (p=0.002) at the time of cardiac arrest compared to time of brain death.  Results of the repeated-measures ANOVA test reveal that RDW level was constantly higher in the traumatic patients group compared to the non-traumatic ones, being 0.32 fold higher (p=0.008).

Conclusions

RDW might be a prognostic biomarker for brain death. High RDW is associated with a higher risk of brain death. In summary, our findings show that the admission of RDW level is a powerful independent prognostic factor for predicting brain death.

Keywords

RDW, Brain death, Cardiac arrest.

 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36741490