Pre-treatment and post-treatment changes in platelet indices in patients with immune thrombocytopenia

OBJECTIVE: To investigate if there is a correlation between pre- and post-treatment mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet size deviation width (PDW), and platecrit (PCT) values and to investigate whether we can use them as laboratory parameters to estimate the relapses of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) patients.

METHODS: Patients with ITP diagnosed at the Hematology Clinic, School of Medicine, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey between January 2005 and December 2011 were evaluated by a retrospective review of our patients' records. Eighty-one patients with ITP were collected. The first relapse was termed as the hospitalization day before second-line therapy, and the second relapse was termed as the hospitalization day before alternate second-line therapy. We provided the following data of ITP patients at diagnosis, before and after first relapses, and before and after second relapses: presenting symptoms, platelet count, MPV, PDW, and PCT values.

RESULTS: We obtained significant statistical differences between MPV values after initial treatment and before second-line therapy (first relapse) (p=0.005), between MPV values after splenectomy and before immunosuppressive or immune modulator therapy (second relapse) (p=0.028), and also, between PCT values after splenectomy and before second relapse (p=0.043).

CONCLUSION: Mean platelet volume is gradually increasing before first and second relapses, and again normal values are being obtained after appropriate therapies. We conclude that MPV is a useful parameter as a predictor of relapses.