The utility of platelet, mean platelet volume, and red cell distribution width in the diagnosis of active Crohn's disease and intestinal tuberculosis

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic utility of platelet count (PLT), mean platelet volume (MPV), and red cell distribution width (RDW) in patients with active Crohn's disease (CD) and intestinal tuberculosis (ITB).

METHODS: This study was conducted in the Department of Gastroenterology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China. Sixty-eight patients with active CD, 35 with ITB, and 22 as control group were recruited. Blood routine test including white blood cell, red blood cell, PLT, MPV, RDW, and so forth was investigated.

RESULTS: Patients with active CD and ITB have increased PLT and RDW (both p<0.001), and decreased MPV (p=0.002). The RDW performed preferably in predicting both active CD (odds ratio [OR]=2.390, p=0.007), and ITB (OR=2.338, p=0.017), and had better diagnostic value (area under the receiver operating characteristics curve [AUC] - 0.812; p<0.001) than CRP (AUC - 0.716; p=0.007) and ESR (AUC - 0.804; p<0.001) in ITB diagnosis.

CONCLUSION: Among the laboratory markers, RDW not only possessed the favorable capability to predict active CD, but also showed outstanding predicting capability, and good diagnostic value in ITB.