The Relationship of Clinical Activation and Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

INTRODUCTION: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic disease that can involve various regions and layers of the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus, with exacerbations-remissions, genetic predisposition and extra intestinal symptoms. Although many activity indices have been used to show the activation of the disease, there is still no consensus on the determination of disease activation. The aim of this study was to investigate the utility of mean platelet volume (MPV), an inexpensive, easily accessible test, as a marker for clinical activation in IBD.
METHODS: 94 clinically active ulcerative colitis, 45 Crohn’s patients and 140 healthy individuals over 18 years of age, colonoscopically and histopathologically confirmed in our clinic, were included in the study. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients, laboratory results, colonoscopy and pathology reports were evaluated retrospectively.
RESULTS: While 87(62.6%) of the patients included in the study were male, 85(60.7%) of the control group were male. The mean ages of the patient and control groups were 45.7±16.5 years and 42.9±14.2 years, respectively. Infection in both active and remission periods of the IBD group, CRP, ESR and leukocyte values were statistically higher in IBD compared to the control group(p<0.0001).MPV was found to be lower in IBD compared to the control group(p<0.0001). In addition, MPV values were also lower in the active disease period compared to the remission period(p<0.0001).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Inflammatory parameters are used in the diagnosis and activation of IBD. We suggest that MPV can also be used as an inflammation marker to show the activation of IBD.