Evaluation of Relationship between Alzheimer's Disease and Red Cell Distribution Volume (RDW)

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that occurs with neuronal and synapse loss, progressive progression and may lead to impaired cognitive functioning, self-care deficits, and behavioral disorders. Red blood cell distribution width (RDW) is a numerical measure of the variation of the sizes of circulating erythrocytes in the circulation. It has been shown in some studies that increased RDW may affect the cerebrovascular pathology and may have a predisposing role in the development of AD. In this study, we aimed to compare the RDW values of patients with AD and healthy controls. Patients and healthy volunteers followed up in our outpatient clinics of our hospital between 2014-2018 were included in our hospital.
METHODS: A total of 98 individuals, including 49 AD diagnosed as AD in Erenkoy Mental Neurologic Disease Hospital outpatient clinic and 49 healthy controls, applied between 2014-2018, were enrolled in this study. Patients who had coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypo or hyperthyroidism, malignancy, chronic renal failure, chronic liver disease and hematologic disease were excluded from this study. Venous blood samples were taken from the median cubital vein. RDW values were estimated by the hospital hemogram measurement devices. SD/MCVx100% equation was also used for checking the RDW measurements.
RESULTS: The mean age of AD patients was 77.3± 8.5 and 73.6±12.0 in the control group with a statistically significant intergroup difference (p=0.020). There was no significant intergroup difference concerning gender (Male/Female, 21/28 in an AD group and 22/27 in the control group (p=0.839). There was no statistical difference between groups concerning RDW values. RDW distribution rates were 14.5±1.5 in AD and 14.7±1.9 in the control groups (p=0.206). The average MMSE score was 16 (8-23) in the AD group.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Although we could not find any significant relationship between AD and RDW, because of its potential effects on AD, and the presence of studies with contrasting results, these results should be confirmed by studies performed with a higher number of patients.