Is Red Blood Cell Distribution Width Predictive of Fatigue After Acute Myocardial Infarction to Improve Nursing Care?

Abstract

Background: Red blood cell Distribution Width (RDW) can help diagnose blood diseases and predict mortality in heart disease. Fatigue is one of the common symptoms of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and can affect the quality of life of patients. This study aimed to investigate the link between RDW at admission and fatigue severity 2 weeks after AMI.

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study examined 250 consecutive patients with AMI during 2023-2024. The patients were assessed for RDW and other laboratory and demographic variables within 24 h of admission. The Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), which is a 9-item and 7-point scale, was completed for patients. A score >36 was considered as Post-AMI Fatigue (PAF) and lower as non-PAF. Data analysis was performed by SPSS version 22 and R version 4.2.2 software.

Results: Our findings indicated that 71.20% of patients experienced fatigue after AMI. There were no significant differences between age, gender, laboratory parameters, past medical history, underlying diseases, and blood pressure of patients with and without fatigue (p > 0.05). RDW distribution for non-PAF and PAF was 13.30% [12.50, 14.60%] and 13.30% [12.80, 14.00%], respectively, (p = 0.726). Multivariable regression results based on three models did not show any significant findings.

Conclusions: The present study is the first study, designed to determine the predictive value of RDW on post-AMI fatigue, as far as we searched the recent literature. We did not find any significant relation between RDW and PAF. Therefore, it cannot be used to predict fatigue in patients with AMI until definitive results are found.