Variations in Platelet Indices among Healthy Nigerian Population

Background: The degree of platelet activation may be assessed by platelet indices such as platelet count (PC), mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW). Platelet indices are potentially predictive, diagnostic and prognostic useful markers for platelet-related disorders.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate platelet indices in a Nigerian population.

Methods: One hundred and eighty-six (186) subjects were enrolled for this study (102 females and 84 males). Thirty (30) of the subjects were ≤30 years, 108 were aged between 30 years-60years while 48 of the subjects were above 60 years. Three (3) ml of venous blood was collected from each consenting subjects into an ethyl diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) anticoagulant bottle at a concentration of 1.5 mg/ml of blood. Full Blood Count (FBC) was determined using the haematology autoanalyzer-Mindray BC-5300. Pearson correlation and one-way analysis of variance and student’s t-test were performed using the statistical package for social sciences-value was set at ≤0.05.

Results: Among the subjects enrolled for the study those with blood group A were 41, blood group B, 28 blood groups AB were 5 and blood group O, 112. The mean values for the platelet indices were MPV (fl) 9.547±1.170 and 9.682±1.054, PDW 14.69±5.181 and 14.54±1.946, Plateletcrit (PCT) (ml/l)1.362±1.173 and 1.47±1.150, among females and males respectively. The PDW varied significantly in the age groups except for ages <30 versus age>60, while PCT which measures the total volume of platelets in a given volume of blood, showed a significant difference for all the age groups. MPV and PDW correlated negatively with platelet in all the age groups and sexes while PCT correlated positively with platelet in all the age groups.

Conclusion: Platelet indices correlate with age, differ among age groups. This underlines the importance of reference ranges among different age groups.