What a Family Doctor Should Know about Incidental Finding of High Mean Platelet Volume, Metabolic Syndrome, and Pre-diabetes

Background: Mean platelet volume (MPV), an essential component of the complete blood count (CBC) indices, is underutilized in common practice. In recent years, MPV has drawn strong interest, especially in clinical research. During inflammation, the MPV has a higher value because of platelet activation. Objectives: To verify whether high MPV values discovered incidentally in healthy naive patients indicates the development or the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, particularly metabolic syndrome and pre-diabetes. Methods: A cohort study was used to assess the diagnostic value of high MPV discovered incidentally, in naive patients (without any known cause of an abnormal high MPV, greater than upper limit of the normal range, such as active cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome). Results: The mean MPV value in the patient group was 12.3 femtoliter. There was a higher incidence of metabolic syndrome in our research group than in the general population and a non-significant tendency of pre-diabetes. Family doctors more frequently meet naive patients with high MPV than a hospital doctor. The results of our study are more relevant for him, who should know the relevance of such a finding and search for a hidden pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Conclusions: High MPV values discovered incidentally in healthy naive subjects suggest the development or the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, particularly metabolic syndrome and pre-diabetes. No statistically significant association was found between MPV and the presence of cardiovascular disease.