Objective: Parkinson’s Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by oxidative stress, protein changes and mitochondrial disfunction. Lately, it has been suggested that inflammatory cytokine levels rises and the mediators such as IL-10 and TNF alpha causes the death of nigral dopaminergic cells in the brain. Red cell distribution witdh (RDW) is a measurement of variability and size of erythrocytes and can be easily measured during routine complete blood counts (CBC). RDW is counted as an inflammatory marker. The high levels of RDW have been previously shown in several diseases such as multiple sclerosis, ankylosing spondylitis and polymyositis. The data about RDW levels in Parkinson’s Disease is scarce.

Background: In this study, we aimed to measure the RDW levels in patients with Parkinson’s disease and investigate the relationship between the RDW levels and the severty of the disease.

Methods: A total of 94 patients with PD who were admitted to the Erenkoy Research and Education Hospital for Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders were included into the study, 97 healthy individuals without history of PD were considered as control groups. Exclusion criteria were diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease, metabolic syndrome, recent infection, hematological disorder, alcoholism, hepatic or renal insuffciency, cranial trauma, neoplastic disease and use of amantadine within the last 6 months for all study subjects. All PD patients were diagnosed as PD according to United Kingdom Parkinson’s Disease Society Brain Bank clinical diagnostic criteria. The united Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS) motor score and the modifed Hoehn and Yahr staging scale (H&Y score) to assess the severity of PD symptoms were used. The demographic features of subjects and the laboratory results were noted. Blood routine tests were performed by using automatic blood cell analysis instrument.

Results: The mean age of the patients and the controls were 66,15 ∓ 11,55, and 60,35 ∓ 19,38 respectively. Female/male ratio were 0.7 in PD group and 1.3 in control group. The mean Hgb concentrations were 13,43 ∓ 1,59 in PD and 13,29∓ 1,49 in controls. RDW values were 15,04 ∓ 2,84 in PD and 14,30 ∓ 1,6 in control group. There was a statistically significant difference of RDW levels between PD patients and controls (p=0,28). In PD group, there was not any correlation between RDW levels and UPDRS or the disease duration( p=0,99, r: -0,001 and p=0.14, r=-0.153, respectively).

Conclusions: Our results suggest that, although statiştically insignificant, RDW levels are higher than the healthy subjects in PD patients, but there is not any associaiton between the severety or the duration of the disease and the RDW levels. Future studies with higher number of subjects are needed to clear the issue.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/red-cell-distribution-with-levels-in-parkinsons-disease-patients/