Relationship between Platelets, Plateletcrit and Lymphocytes in the Complete Blood Count and Recurrent Implantation Failure: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background: Approximately 10% of women undergoing in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) treatment experience recurrent implantation failure (RIF). The causes for RIF are complicated. Inflammatory processes and thrombophilia play important roles in the development of RIF. This retrospective study was conducted to investigate whether there is an association between inflammatory parameters, including platelets (PLTs), plateletcrit (PCT) and lymphocytes in the complete blood count (CBC) and RIF. Methods: This was a single-center retrospective evaluation of 150 women who had a history of RIF and 163 controls who had a live birth after the first embryo transfer. Basal characteristics, CBC and coagulation parameters of both groups were compared. Results: Compared with the controls, the women with a history of RIF had significantly lower PLT, PCT and lymphocyte counts (p = 0.03, p = 0.019 and p = 0.012, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed that PLT had a sensitivity of 48.6% and a specificity of 66.4% with a cutoff value of 271.5 (area under the curve (AUC): 0.575); PCT had a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of 38.9% with a cutoff value of 0.245 (AUC: 0.575); and lymphocyte count had a sensitivity of 49.3% and a specificity of 71% with a cutoff value of 2.015 (AUC: 0.577) for predicting RIF. The multivariant receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed a cutoff value of 0.508 with a sensitivity of 70.3% and a specificity of 48.9% (AUC: 0.599) (p = 0.004). Conclusions: PLT, PCT and lymphocyte counts in patients with RIF are significantly reduced, although they are not effective parameters for predicting RIF.