Red Cell Distribution Width Is an Independent Risk Factor of Patients with Renal Function Damage in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus of Children in China.

AIMS: The aim of this study is to investigate whether red cell distribution width (RDW) is associated with renal function damage in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) of children in China.

METHODS: We used urine albumin-creatinine ratio to define microalbuminuria (MAU). A total of 170 patients were recruited in the study including 88 patients with MAU and 82 patients without MAU. Clinical and laboratory data of two groups were compared.

RESULTS: The present study demonstrated that the RDW values were significantly higher in patients with MAU than those without MAU. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that RDW was an independent risk factor for renal function damage in T1DM. The receiver operating characteristic curves were used to investigate the relationship between MAU and RDW, the area under the curve was 0.75. Using the cut-off point of 12.8, RDW predicts renal function damage in T1DM patients with a sensitivity of 75.8% and a specificity of 58.2%.

CONCLUSION: In this study, we suggested that RDW could be used as an effective predictor of diabetic early renal function damage or diabetes-related complications.