Sepsis remains the leading cause of death in critically ill patients. Thus, regular measurement of lactate levels has been proposed in sepsis guidelines. Elevated red cell distribution width (RDW) is associated with mortality risk in patients with sepsis. This study aimed to investigate the association between RDW and the risk of other adverse outcomes in patients with sepsis and to compare the mortality discriminative ability between lactate and RDW levels. This is a single-centered, retrospective, case-control study that included 504 adult patients with sepsis in the emergency department between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2020. Eligible patients were divided into normal (RDW ≤ 14.5%) and high (RDW > 14.5%) groups. The baseline characteristics and adverse outcomes were recorded and compared. Compared with the normal RDW group, the patients in the high RDW group had a significantly higher rate of ICU admission (48.8% vs. 32.4%, p = 0.03), septic shock (39.2% vs. 23.5%, p < 0.01), and 30-day in-hospital mortality (32.0% vs. 20.7%, p < 0.01). Furthermore, the RDW (area under curve (AUC) = 0.71) had superior mortality discriminative ability compared to lactate (AUC = 0.63) levels (p = 0.02). Clinicians could rely on this simple and rapid parameter for risk stratification to initiate prompt treatment for patients with sepsis.
Keywords: erythrocyte indices; lactate; prognosis; sepsis.