Family Practice and Palliative Care (Aug 2018)
Evaluation of mean platelet volume and platelet count in patients with schizophrenia
Abstract
Introduction: Compared to the generalpopulation, cardiovascular diseases are more common in schizophrenia patientsand the mortality rate is higher than the general population. One of theexplanations for increased cardiovascular events in patients with schizophreniais the increase in platelet activity. Platelets are essential for progression ofatherosclerotic lesions, plaque destabilization, and thrombus formation. Meanplatelet volume (MPV) is a measure of platelet size and a good marker ofplatelet function and activation, which increases in cardiovascular diseases.MPV is routinely reported during complete blood count analysis. The aim of thepresent study was to evaluate MPV values of patients with schizophrenia. Methods: In this retrospective study,hospital-records of the patients who were consecutively admitted to psychiatryinpatient clinic between January 2015 and January 2017 with the diagnosis ofschizophrenia were reviewed. Healthy subjects with no personal history ofpsychiatric disorder were included as a control group.Results: A total of 100 (59 female, 41 male)schizophrenic patients who had been consecutively admitted to the psychiatryinpatient clinic and 37(20 female, 17 male) healthy controls were included in this retrospective study. Therewere no significant differences between the patient group and control group inthe terms of age (mean age patient group vs control group: 37.72 vs 35.03, p=0.081) and sex(p=0.603). Body mass index (BMI) wasfound to be significantly different between groups, higher in the patient group(p=0.001). The MPV was found to besignificantly higher in patient group compared with the control group (MPV,patient group vs control group: 10.34 fL vs 9.97 fL, p=0.041). Platelet count (PC) was significantly lower in the patient group (PC,patient group vs control group: 234.36 vs 267.38, p=0.008) Therewas no correlation between MPV and BMI (p=0.354, r=0.10), andduration of illness (p=0.530,r=0.06). Conclusions: As a result,increased MPV and decreased PC were found in a group of schizophrenic patientin this study. Since increased MPV and decreased PC are evaluated as riskfactors for cardiovascular diseases in the general population, they can also be considered as apredictor of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases that are more frequently encountered in schizophrenia.
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