Mean Platelet Volume (MPV): New Perspectives for an Old Marker in the Course and Prognosis of Inflammatory Conditions

Abstract

Platelet size has been demonstrated to reflect platelet activity and seems to be a useful predictive and prognostic biomarker of cardiovascular events. It is associated with a variety of prothrombotic and proinflammatory diseases. The aim is a review of literature reports concerning changes in the mean platelet volume (MPV) and its possible role as a biomarker in inflammatory processes and neoplastic diseases. PubMed database was searched for sources using the following keywords: platelet activation, platelet count, mean platelet volume and: inflammation, cancer/tumor, cardiovascular diseases, myocardial infarction, diabetes, lupus disease, rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, ulcerative colitis, renal disease, pulmonary disease, influencing factors, age, gender, genetic factors, oral contraceptives, smoking, lifestyle, methods, standardization, and hematological analyzer. Preference was given to the sources which were published within the past 20 years. Increased MPV was observed in cardiovascular diseases, cerebral stroke, respiratory diseases, chronic renal failure, intestine diseases, rheumatoid diseases, diabetes, and various cancers. Decreased MPV was noted in tuberculosis during disease exacerbation, ulcerative colitis, SLE in adult, and different neoplastic diseases. The study of MPV can provide important information on the course and prognosis in many inflammatory conditions. Therefore, from the clinical point of view, it would be interesting to establish an MPV cut-off value indicating the intensity of inflammatory process, presence of the disease, increased risk of disease development, increased risk of thrombotic complications, increased risk of death, and patient’s response on applied treatment. Nevertheless, this aspect of MPV evaluation allowing its use in clinical practice is limited and requires further studies.

A Hospital Based Comparative Study of Serum Mean Platelet Volume in Ischemic Stroke Patients.

“…Similarly, O'Malley et al [20] found greater MPV values in patients with acute ischemic stroke than in controls. Conversely, Cho et al did not find any significant difference between patients and controls in relation to MPV values, [21] but most of the studies proved that MPV levels were higher in stroke patients [19].…”

“…Increment in the mean platelet volume (MPV) level has been observed in patients with stroke [17] and acute myocardial infarction [18] than in control subjects. Aleksandra Korniluk et al [19] found that MPV and MPV/PC ratio was significantly higher in patients presenting with cerebrovascular stroke compared to a control group. Similarly, O'Malley et al [20] found greater MPV values in patients with acute ischemic stroke than in controls.…”

A New Scoring System for Prediction of Intravenous Immunoglobulin Resistance of Kawasaki Disease in Infants Under 1-Year Old

“…In consequence, a high level of peripheral NLR indicates the severity of the clinical course. Peripheral MPVLR represents the ratio of mean platelet volume to lymphocyte count, and high peripheral MPV values have been found in a variety of inflammatory diseases (32). Elevated MPVLR was shown in previous studies to predict the poor prognosis of patients with cardiovascular disease, especially for coronary heart disease (25,33).…”

Diagnostic value of mean platelet volume in neonatal sepsis

“…Platelets also support leukocytes to eliminate bacterial infections via direct contact, encapsulation of bacteria, and release of reactive oxygen species and platelet microbicidal proteins (PMP). 13 The mechanism of changing platelet function in sepsis is still unclear. Platelet shape changes from discoid to spherical with pseudopodia during activation.…”