The Clinical Usefulness of Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration in Patients with Pneumoconiosis

AIM: We investigated the clinical usefulness of mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) in patients with pneumoconiosis. METHODS: We retrospectively investigated the medical records from 52 patients with pneumoconiosis, and erythrocyte parameters were analyzed in pneumoconiosis patients with different stages. RESULTS: Here, we found that the values of MCHC were significantly lower in III stage pneumoconiosis than those with I/II stage (p = 0.024), and there was no significantly difference in MCHC between smoking pneumoconiosis patients and non-smoking pneumoconiosis patients. A negatively correlation between MCHC and disease stage was observed in patients with pneumoconiosis (r = −0.298, p = 0.032). In multiple linear regression analysis, the MCHC was found to be independently associated with advanced pneumoconiosis in patients with pneumoconiosis (p=0.011). The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that decreased MCHC was an independent risk factor of advanced pneumoconiosis in patients with pneumoconiosis (OR: 0.936, CI95%: 0.877–0.999, p = 0.046). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the optimal cutoff value of MCHC was 330 g/L to identify advanced pneumoconiosis with the area under the curve of 0.694 (CI95%:0.550–0.839, p = 0.018). CONCLUSION: The decreased MCHC is associated with advanced pneumoconiosis, and MCHC may be used as a monitoring marker for follow-up of pneumoconiosis patients.