No, there’s a huge difference. The debug libraries use a completely different malloc/free scheme than the release libraries. The malloc/free scheme provided in the debug libraries provides more checking for array overruns and the like; however, the fact that it is a different scheme means that you absolutely cannot mix and match debug and release runtime libraries within the same application. If Panda is built to link against the release libraries, then your application must link against them too.
However, debug symbols can be provided regardless of the runtime library you are using, so it is possible to use the debugger to step through your application in either case.
David