Clinics and Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology (2013) 37, 41—46 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ORIGINAL ARTICLE Mean platelet volume is increased in chronic hepatitis C patients with advanced fibrosis Tugrul Purnak a,* , Sehmus Olmez a , Serkan Torun b , Cumali Efe c , Abdurrahim Sayilir b , Ersan Ozaslan a , Ilyas Tenlik a , Ismail Hakki Kalkan b , Yavuz Beyazit b , Osman Yuksel d a Department of Gastroenterology, Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey b Department of Gastroenterology, Yuksek Ihtisas Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey c Department of Gastroenterology, Hacettepe University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey d Department of Gastroenterology, Diskapi Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey Available online 7 May 2012 Summary Background and aims: Liver biopsy is the gold standard procedure for documenting liver damage in chronic hepatitis C (CHC), as for many other chronic liver diseases. Mean platelet volume (MPV) is a laboratory marker obtained from complete blood count (CBC) analysers in routine clinical practice. The goal of the present study was to evaluate whether MPV would be useful in predicting liver histologic severity in CHC. Patients and methods: A total of 59 patients with CHC and 25 control subjects were recruited into the present study. There were 26 men and 33 women in the CHC group and 12 men and 13 women in the control group. MPV was recorded at the time of admission. The clinical char- acteristics of CHC patients, including demographics, laboratory and liver biopsy findings, were reviewed. Results: A statistically significant increase in MPV values was observed in CHC patients (8.54 ± 0.63 fL) compared to healthy controls (7.65 ± 0.42 fL) (P < 0.001). Moreover, MPV val- ues were significantly higher among patients with advanced fibrosis as compared to those with mild fibrosis (8.99 ± 0.57 fL vs. 8.19 ± 0.50 fL P < 0.001). Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis suggested that the optimum cut-off point for MPV value in advanced fibrosis was 8.75 fL. (Sensitivity: 80.8%, specificity: 81.8%, positive predictive value [PPV] 77.8%, negative predictive value [NPV] 84.4%, accuracy 81.3%, AUC: 0.98 P < 0.001) Conclusion: The current study showed that MPV is increased in CHC with advanced fibrosis. Calculation of MPV along with the use of other markers may give further information about liver fibrosis severity in CHC. © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 312 5084822; fax: +90 312 3125026. E-mail address: purnakt@yahoo.com (T. Purnak). 2210-7401/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.clinre.2012.03.035