Association between platelet indices and risk of preeclampsia in pregnant women

Abstract

We aimed to examine the association between the platelet indices and the risk of preeclampsia (PE) at different gestational weeks (GW) to explore the feasibility of early prediction of PE with these indices. About 7314 normotensive pregnant women and 396 PE patients were included and platelet indices, including platelet count (PC), plateletcrit (PCT), platelet distribution width (PDW), mean platelet volume (MPV) at different gestational weeks (1–12, 13–28, 29–32, 33–36 and 37–41 GW) were compared in two statistical methods. Patients with PE tended to have higher means of PC, PCT, PDW and MPV than normal pregnant women at early stage of pregnancy. The odds of PE were significantly increased with the increase of PC, PCT, PDW and MPV both at 13–28 GW and 29–32 GW, which indicated that increased values of PC, PCT, PDW and MPV at 13-32 GW were associated with greater subsequent risk of preeclampsia. Increased PC, PCT, PDW and MPV may have potential to predict preeclampsia before the disease onset.

Impact Statement

• What is already known on this subject? Previous studies indicated that preeclampsia patients may have decreased platelet count (PC), plateletcrit (PCT) and increased platelet distribution width (PDW) and mean platelet volume (MPV). Increased PDW and MPV or decreased PC/MPV may have predictive values for PE.

• What do the results of this study add? The discrepancy with previous studies lay in the increased values of PC and PCT in PE patients at early stage of pregnancy. The study indicated that increased PC, PCT, PDW and MPV may have potential to predict preeclampsia far ahead of the disease onset. The results may reflect the abnormal turnover of platelets in PE patients.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? These findings may help to guide early interventions before progress to overt preeclampsia by predicting onset of preeclampsia via easily available platelet indices in early weeks of gestation, which is especially valuable in areas lacking medical resources. The inconsistency with previous studies can facilitate researchers to further explore the coagulation mechanism beneath preeclampsia and pay more attention to the dynamic changes of platelet indices and other coagulation indices during pregnancy.

Keywords:

• Preeclampsia
• platelet count
• plateletcrit
• platelet distribution width
• mean platelet volume
• predictive value

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Information Centre of Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center for providing the clinical data required in the research.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was ratified by Ethics Committee of Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Centre who deemed that written informed consent was not required (Ethical approval number: 127A01).

Author contributions

Jinjuan Wu and Yu-Ming Chen designed this work. Jinjuan Wu performed the data analysis. Jing Zhang and Jinying Yang drafted the manuscript. Thomas Qintian Zheng helped explain the results and revised the manuscript. All authors discussed the design, critically revised the manuscript, and agreed on the final version. All authors had full access to the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analyses. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.