The relationship between red blood cell distribution width with level of buildup of fat in the liver and liver enzymes in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

SUMMARY There are many articles about the inflammatory processes leads to red cell distrubition width (RDW) increase in the literature. Inflammation plays role in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This study is conducted to figure out does inflammation have an effect on RDW or not, and to show the relation between RDW, fat deposition status of liver, and liver enzymes. One hundred and twenty patients who were diagnosed as fatty liver disease with ultrasound (USG) and who does not have chronic liver disease, chronic inflammatory disease and anemia included to this study. The mean RDW level of the study population was % 14.06+1,3. The statistical significance testing (p values) between RDW- fat deposition status in USG, RDW-AST, RDW- ALT, RDW-ALP, RDW- GGT, and RDW-LDH were as follow 0,7 - 0,8 ? 0,2 ? 0,3 ? 0,5 ? 0,1. There were no statistically significant relationship between the RDW, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and liver enzymes. We found in our study that RDW sensitivity and spesificity in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is low and we conclude that RDW is not a predictive value for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. More comprehensive studies are needed to find definite results. Key Words: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, RDW, inflammation, liver enzymes