Background and study aim: Liver biopsy limitations push us to search for new non invasive methods to detect liver fibrosis such as serum markers. The aim of this study is to evaluate mean platelet volume (MPV) as a fibrosis marker in patient with chronic hepatitis C.
Patients and methods: 150 patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C infection refereed to Tanta Fever Hospital in period from May 2013 to January 2014 and 20 healthy volunteers as a control were included. All of them were tested for Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) in comparison with who done liver biopsy as standard.
Results: Statistically significant differences in MPV and Platelet Count were seen in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) compared to healthy controls (MPV: 8.95 ± 1.39fL vs. 7.57 ± 0.68 fl, P-value = 0.043; PC 226.03 ±68.36 vs. 188.9±46.49, P-value = 0.02)
Multi-variate Logistic regression analysis shows only 5 variables remained as independent risk factors for fibrosis progression: (MPV, Schistosomiasis, ALT, AST and Prothrombin time).
AST (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.21), ALT (OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.86 to 0.99), PT (OR 2.11, 95% CI 1.15 to 3.88), and MPV (OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.22 to 4.25).
Cut-off values were calculated for diagnostic performance, and the cut-off value for MPV was 9.22 fl., sensitivity 75.5%, specificity 62%, PPV 40.3%, NPPV 93.4% and Accuracy rate 61.8%
Conclusion: We suggest that high MPV levels (especially those over 9.22 fl) may help to predict advanced fibrosis in patients with CHC .However, it should not be forgotten that MPV is not a specific marker for fibrosis, and the negative predictive rate seems more valuable to exclude a high fibrosis ratio in patients with CHC.