Red Cell Distribution Width as a Marker of Inflammation in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract
Background: Red Blood Cell Distribution (RDW) is recognized as a global marker of chronic inflammation.
Aim of Study: To study the relation between RDW and complications in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and its relation to CRP.
Methods: The study included 70 patients with type 2 DM and 20 healthy controls with clinical and laboratory data including HbA1c, RDW and C Reactive Protein (CRP).
Results: Patient group showed 65 (92.85%) of them had macrovascular and 64 (91.42%) patients had microvascular complications. When we compared patients with macrovascular and microvascular complications to control group we found high RDW in those with vascular complications than control group (p=0.001). There was a significant difference between RDW in patients with macrovascular complications in com-parison to those without macrovascular complications (p-value=0.02). There was a significant difference between RDW in patients with nephropathy compared to those with retinop-athy.
Conclusion: In our study, we confirmed a strong relation between diabetics with vascular complications and RDW.