1992 Volume 6 Issue 5 Pages 460-467
We examined red blood cell volume distribution width (hereinafter referred to as RDW) on healthy children. RDW was as high as 16.6 ±1.6% (mean ± 1 SD) in normal and premature neonates. RDW was the largest at neonatal period and thereafter decreased gradually with age. No significant difference from adults was noted for children ≥6 years, the normal RDW being 13.0 ±1.0%. For iron deficiency anemia, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was low and RDW was high. After the treatment, RDW became higher with reticulocytosis, with red blood cell histogram being wave-like. With the improvement in anemia, RDW returned to the normal. For hereditary spherocytosis, MCV was normal, RDW being high before splenectomy, and both these were normal after splenectomy. For hemolytic anemia due to pyruvate kinase deficiency, MCV and RDW were remarkably high after splenectomy. Of 13 cases with aplastic anemia, 7 showed high MCV and normal RDW and 6 showed high MCV and RDW ; no correlations were noted between RDW, conditions and anemia. For leukemic children, the marjority of those under long-term remission and withdrawal showed normal RDW, and those under intensive chemotherapy using high-dose cytosine arabinoside mostly showed smaller MCV and RDW, and thereafter had larger or pre-treatment RDW values with reticulocytosis. Generally, RDW was proportional to the peripheral reticulocyte count. RDW and erythrocyte histogram may indicate the state of bone marrow erythropoiesis in the patients with various kinds of hematological disorders.
