The role of red cell distribution width as a noninvasive index for predicting liver cell failure and portal hypertension in cirrhotic patients

Abstract

The liver distortion that occurs in cirrhosis results in increased resistance to portal blood flow and hence in portal hypertension which is one of the most common and serious complications of liver cirrhosis.Red cell distribution width (RDW) is routinely performed as part of a complete blood cell counts. Elevated RDW values were also shown to be associated with increased risk of mortality in the general population. However, to our knowledge, the role of RDW values predicting LCF and portal hypertension in LC has not been well-defined. The present study was designed to investigate the role of RDW as anon invasive predicting index for LCF and portal hypertension in cirrhotic patient which will improve the diagnostic efficiency and provide useful information with other serum markers for the detection of LCF in LC. We found significantly good correlation between Child–Pugh and RDW values which can ultimately be used to predict the survival of patients with LC. There was also good correlation between RDW and those receiving ?-blockers, so it may be used as an indicator for patient compliance, but there was no significant correlation with the grade of encephalopathy and portal hypertension.

Keywords

• complete blood count (CBC)
• international normalization ratio (INR)
• liver cirrhosis (LC)
• liver cell failure (LCF)
• liver function test (LFT)
• model for end stage liver disease (MELD)
• prothrombin time (PT)
• portal vein (PV)
• red blood corpusles (RBCs)
• red blood cell distribution width (RDW)