HEART & LUNG, cilt.41, sa.3, ss.238-243, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressively debilitating disease limiting patients' survival. The prognosis of COPD worsens with the addition of right ventricular (RV) failure. Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a measure of variability in the size of circulating erythrocytes, and is a powerful predictor of outcomes in patients with both chronic and acute left heart failure. Here we attempted to test whether RDW could provide an early marker of RV failure in patients with COPD.