Introduction: The increased red blood cells distribution width (RDW) is associated with poor prognosis in patients with cardiovascular (CV) disease and it is a predictive factor for cardiovascular mortality in the general population. Recently, the link between the RDW and the development of diabetes was found. (1) Objective: The increased RDW is associated with CV and overall mortality in patients with heart failure, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Here we present the results of a subanalysis research of the relationship between resistin and other biomarkers of atherosclerosis, in which we have included the RDW with histology of atherosclerotic carotid plaque with emphasis on the influence of anthropometric factors (age, sex, body height, body weight and waist circumference) on the RDW width.

Patients and Methods: The study included 78 patients (30 women) with significant carotid artery stenosis which were planned for an elective endarterectomy. Blood samples from each patient were taken prior to surgery and RDW was measured (12.4-18.9, mean 13.589%) and anthropometric data were determined as follows: age (45-84; mean age, 66.83 years), body height (148 to 187; mean height 168.78 cm), body weight (47-110, average weight 80.49 kg), and waist circumference (75-122, midrange 101.27cm).

Results: Subanalysis of data showed statistically significant positive correlation between the RDW and waist circumference (p=0.0034).

Conclusion: This research showed a positive correlation between RDW and waist circumference for all patients with significant carotid artery stenosis, regardless of age and gender. Positive correlation between RDW and waist circumference which is a risk factor for the development of metabolic syndrome leads to the postulate that the possible inflammatory events might be the cause of increased destruction of red blood cells. Measuring of RDW is applicable and cheap as well as measuring waist circumference which is very useful in determining CV mortality.