• Xiqian Xing, Yishu Deng, Yun Zhu, Shuangyan Xu, Jie Liu, Chunfang Zhang, Shuanglan Xu, and Jiao Yang.
• Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, The Second People's Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China.
• Clin Respir J. 2020 Oct 1; 14 (10): 901-907.

ObjectivesPatients with pulmonary embolism (PE) have a higher red cell distribution width (RDW), which may complicate the interpretation of the prognosis of PE. We aim to evaluate the diagnostic utility of the RDW in patients with PE.MethodsEligible studies were identified by searching PubMed and EMBASE from inception to December 23, 2018. The data were pooled using Stata 12 to evaluate the prognostic value. The sources of heterogeneity were detected.ResultsFor the analysis of prognosis, 7 studies with 2146 patients were included, with median RDW values ranging from 13.4% to 15.7% and a median cut-off point of 18.27%. A total of 247 patients (11.5% mortality) among the 2146 participants died. Overall, RDW was positively associated with the prognosis of PE in the overall analysis (HR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.10-1.29, I2  = 73.4%; P = 0.000). Subgroup analyses by study design, sex and follow-up time indicated that they were not sources of heterogeneity.ConclusionsAn elevated RDW has the potential to be a biomarker for prognosis in PE patients.© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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