Evidence on the Heroin-Mediated Impairment of the Oxidative Status of Erythrocytes

Table 1

Comparison of red cell indices among chronic heroin addicts and control subjects: there was no significant difference between control and heroin-addicted subjects, in all red cell indices, except the RDW ().

Indices (unit)	Control (mean ± SEM)	Heroin (mean ± SEM)	value
RBC count (10^6 cell/μL)	5.3 ± 0.1	5.2 ± 0.2	0.864
Hb (g/dL)	15.6 ± 0.3	15.7 ± 0.2	0.834
Hct (%)	45.6 ± 0.5	46.1 ± 0.7	0.595
MCV (fL)	85.9 ± 1.1	87.4 ± 1.4	0.410
MCH (pg)	29.4 ± 0.4	29.8 ± 0.6	0.594
MCHC (g/dL)	34.2 ± 0.2	34.0 ± 0.2	0.462
RDW (%)	13.4 ± 0.3	14.3 ± 0.1	0.005

Hb, hemoglobin concentration; Hct, hematocrit; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; MCH, mean corpuscular hemoglobin; MCHC, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; RDW, red cell distribution width. Results are presented as mean ± SEM. It is statistically significant with