Role of platelet indices in prediction of preeclampsia

Objectives: To compare platelet indices in preeclamptic and normotensive pregnants and to investigate the clinical use of these parameters in preeclampsia prediction.Material and methods: This retrospective case- control study included 257 preeclampsia patients and 264 healthy pregnant women as the control group. The groups were compared in terms of platelet count (PC), mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution range (PDW), plateletcrit (Pct), Pct / MPV ratio and PC / MPV ratio.Results: Between the preeclampsia group and the control group; mean platelet count (227.22 ± 78.58 vs 236.69 ± 64.30), plateletcrit (PCT) (0.21 ± 0.06 vs 0.24 ± 0.27), and platelet distribution width (PDW) (17.11 ± 0.80 vs 17.29 ± 0.82) were not significantly different (p> 0.05). However, MPV values were significantly higher in the preclampsia group compared to the control group (9.66 ± 1.62 and 8.92 ± 1.33, respectively) (p < 0.001). In our study, the optimum cut-off value of MPV was 9.15 with 58.7% sensitivity and 61.7% specificity for the prediction of preeclampsia. Pct/MPV ratio (0.02 ± 0.007 vs 0.027 ± 0.029) ( p = 0.01) and PC/MPV ratio ( 24.63 ± 10.90 vs 27.63 ± 10.24) (p = 0.001) were significantly lower in the preeclampsia group than in the control group.Conslusions: In preeclampsia, changes in platelet functions, destruction and production lead to changes in platelet indices. Compared with normal healthy pregnant women, preeclamptic pregnant women have higher MPV values. In preeclampsia prediction, MPV and PC/MPV ratio are promising as a diagnostic parameter