Association Between Erythrocyte Mean Corpuscular Volume and Peripheral Arterial Disease in Male Subjects

Abstract

Elevated serum total homocysteine, an established risk factor for peripheral arterial disease, is influenced by the vitamin B12 and folate status. Since these vitamins are inversely correlated with erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume, an investigation of whether mean corpuscular volume is higher in patients with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease than in healthy subjects was performed. Furthermore, a determination of predictors of increased mean corpuscular volume levels in this population free of symptomatic coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, and diabetes mellitus was carried out. From 469 consecutive patients with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease, 100 fulfilled study inclusion criteria. Peripheral arterial disease was confirmed by angiography. One hundred age-matched subjects without peripheral arterial disease as verified by ankle-brachial index measurements >0.9 served as control subjects. Patients with PAD displayed a significantly higher mean corpuscular volume level (94.5 fl) than control subjects (90.9 fl, p<0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that current smoking status (p<0.001) and mean corpuscular volume (p=0.009), but not total homocysteine or lipid parameters discriminated case control status. In addition, logistic regression analysis revealed a relationship of mean corpuscular volume with smoking (p=0.001), gamma-glutamyltransferase (p<0.001), and total homocysteine (p=0.012). This model predicted mean corpuscular volume values with an accuracy of 83%. Elevated mean corpuscular volume is a predictor of symptomatic peripheral arterial disease in the sample studied. A deficiency of folate and/or vitamin B12 may be responsible for this observation, as indicated by the correlation of mean corpuscular volume with total homocysteine. Due to the additional association of mean corpuscular volume with smoking and gamma-glutamyltransferase, an unhealthy lifestyle with low vitamin intake may cause elevated mean corpuscular volume values in patients with PAD.

Gradient Relationship between Increased Mean Corpuscular Volume and Mortality Associated with Cerebral Ischemic Stroke and Ischemic Heart Disease: A Longitudinal Study on 66,294 Taiwanese

“…Collectively, these studies reveal that elevated RDW is associated with increased cardiovascular events and deaths, but it should be noted that MCV was not evaluated. A previous case-control study found an association between MCV and peripheral arterial disease in males and concluded that an elevated MCV is a predictor of symptomatic peripheral arterial disease 15 ; however, the influence of MCV on the arteries in the brain and heart was not assessed. A previous study using MCV and RDW to predict left atrial stasis in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation 17 revealed that both parameters may be markers of left atrial stasis.…”

“…RDW is an indicator of variation in red blood cell (RBC) size within blood samples, not the actual width of individual RBCs. RDW-coefficient of variation (CV), a measure of RDW, is derived from the equation (1 unit of standard deviation [SD] of erythrocyte volumes divided by mean corpuscular volume [MCV]) × 100% 15 . Therefore, a relationship exists between RDW and MCV.…”

Risk of Hemorrhagic Stroke With Aspirin Use

“…8 Platelet-derived cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) generates thromboxane A 2 , a potent vasoconstrictor and platelet agonist. The effect of aspirin on platelet COX-1 is irreversible, thus providing for once-daily low-dose effectiveness.…”

Erythrocyte Mean Cellular Volume and its Relation to Serum Homocysteine, Vitamin B12 and Folate

“…However, a direct relationship between tHcy and MCV values has not been demonstrated. Since elevated tHcy values are known risk factors for atherosclerosis (5) and due to recent observations that MCV values are also raised in atherosclerotic disease (6, 7), it was of interest to answer the following two questions: 1) Is there a direct relationship between MCV and tHcy in a population with symptomatic atherosclerosis? 2) Is this relation stronger than the association of MCV with serum B12 and serum folate?…”