Mean Platelet Volume: A Reliable Marker of Inflammation in Recurrent Apthous Stomatitis and Behçet Disease?

BACKGROUND

Mean platelet volume (MPV) is an indicator of platelet activation and aggregation. MPV has been found to be related with the inflammation of certain disorders in recent studies.

AIMS: We sought to investigate whether MPV could be an indicator of inflammation in patients with Behçet disease (BD) and recurrent apthous stomatitis (RAS).

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Our study was designed as a retrospective case-control study and data was retrieved from our institutional database. We randomly generated a total of three study groups from our clinical archive. All controls were sex and age-matched and randomly selected by computer. Eighty-five patients with BD, 82 patients with RAS, and 721 healthy controls were included for the study design. We compared mean MPV values in the patient groups and controls.

RESULTS

We found no difference in the mean MPV value between BD group and BD-control group. The mean MPV value was significantly higher in patients with RAS than that in the RAS-control group (9.11 ± 1.01 fL vs. 8.76 ± 1.15 fL, P = 0.045). There was no difference in mean MPV level between BD and RAS group.

CONCLUSION

The association between MPV and inflammatory skin diseases such as BD and RAS should be investigated prospectively in case-control studies.

LIMITATIONS: Retrospective study design.