The relationship of red cell distrabition width (RDW) values with prognosis in acute ischemic stroke patients given intravenous thrombolitic treatment

İntroduction: Stroke is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. With revascularization treatments applied more widely in the last two decades, ischemic strokes, which constitute the majority of strokes, are tried to be prevented. Predicting the response to treatment after tissue plasminogen activator (rt-TPA) administered in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke is of great importance in creating revascularization strategies. Therefore, we wanted to investigate whether erythrocyte distribution volume (RDW), which is a low-cost whole blood parameter frequently studied in routine blood tests, is a biomarker showing early neurological recovery and early functional recovery after rt-TPA treatment. Method: In this study, 99 patients who applied to Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital Emergency Service between February 1, 2017 and May 1, 2020 and were diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke and were given rt-TPA treatment were included in the study retrospectively. Admission blood RDW levels and modified Rankin score (mRS) and NIHSS (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale) values before treatment, 1st hour, 1st day and 7th day of treatment were obtained from patient registry system. RDW levels were compared between patients whose mRS and NIHSS values decreased after treatment and patients who did not have a decrease. The analysis of the collected data was carried out on the SPSS-26 program. Results: After treatment with tissue plasminogen activator, there was no statistically significant relationship between RDW levels between the group whose mRS and NIHSS values decreased and the group without decrease. In our study, the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF), urea, creatinine height, body mass index (BMI) elevation, AST elevation, systolic blood pressure elevation xiv were found to be statistically higher in the group without mRS or NIHSS reduction compared to the group with a decrease. Conclusion: In our study, RDW levels were found to be insufficient for use as a prognosis biomarker in acute ischemic stroke patients receiving rt-TPA treatment. In addition, the presence of AF, high urea, creatine, high BMI, high AST, and high systolic blood pressure were found to be associated with poor prognosis. Key Words: Iv tpa, NIHSS, RDW