Red cells distribution width after cardiac arrest

Methods Retrospective analysis of an institutional database including all adult comatose patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after CA from January 2007 to December 2014. Inclusion criteria were as follows: age ≥18, non-traumatic arrest and survival ≥ 24 hours after admission. We collected demographics and CA related data. We also collected daily routine blood analyses; RDW (normal values: 10.9-13.4%), was obtained from the day of admission to day 3. We recorded ICU mortality and long-term neurological outcome; a CPC score of 3-5 at 3-months was used to define poor neurological outcome (PNO).