Red blood cell distribution width is an inflammatory but not a nutritional biomarker

Haenggi E et al. have published their research which reported that red blood cell distribution width (RDW) could served as a surrogate index for both nutritional risk assessment and the response for nutritional therapy [1]. The study recruited participants from EFFORT [2], a Swiss-based randomized clinical trial which aimed to evaluate the effects of personalized nutrition therapy on mortality and length of hospital stay (LOS) in hospital patients compared with conventional hospital food. A high RDW (≥15%) was associated with about two-fold higher (hazard ratios = 1.94; 95% CI: 1.49, 2.52) risk of all-cause mortality within 180 days after adjustment of potential confounders, relative to those with low RDW (<15%).