Mean platelet volume (MPV) as a biomarker of disease activity in ulcerative colitis

Background and aim All platelet indices may be useful biomarkers for follow-up in inflammatory bowel disease patients as they show a strong correlation with disease activity. In this work, we aimed to investigate the relation between mean platelet volume (MPV) and ulcerative colitis (UC) activity by comparing the MPV values between cases with active UC, mild cases and normal individuals. Patients and methods This observational study was carried out on 90 individuals aged >18 years. They were divided equally into the following groups: group A: active UC, group B: remitting UC and group C: healthy controls free of any systemic diseases as a reference. UC was confirmed based on colonoscopy and biopsy. Results Patients with active UC have significantly smaller MPV in comparison with patients with disease remission or healthy controls (P value <0.001), without a difference between patients in remission and healthy controls. MPV was directly proportional to the Hemoglobin level among study populations (r=0.64, P<0.001). MPV was negatively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=−0.74, P<0.001), total leukocytic count (r=−0.49, P<0.001) and platelet count (r=−0.24, P=0.023) in all the study populations. Conclusion MPV decreases in the active phase of UC compared with the remission phase or healthy individuals. There is a relationship between the degree of disease activity and MPV in UC. Hence, MPV can be a useful biomarker for assessing disease activity for UC.