Our study was focused on a real-life cohort of unselected patients admitted to a Cardiology ward for various manifestations of cardiovascular diseases, and we highlighted that higher RDW values are independently associated with the risk of all-cause death and of a composite endpoint of clinically relevant events (all-cause death, TIA/stroke, thromboembolic events, acute coronary syndromes) even after adjustments for potential confounders: age, reduced LVEF, chronic kidney disease, Hb and RBC levels. The gene discussed is GSTM1; the disease is chronic kidney disease.