ACUTE APPENDICITIS

Objectives: To study mean platelet volume (MPV) in acute appendicitis andits correlation with leukocyte count. Study Design: Case control study Place and Duration:Department of Surgery, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro/Hyderabadfrom January 2013 to February 2014. Subjects and Methods: Subjects with clinical suspicionof acute appendicitis were selected according inclusion and exclusion criteria. A sample of 49acute appendicitis patients and 37 controls were studied. The Blood samples were collected insodium citrate vacutainers and processed on Sysmex KX 21 analyzers. The main analysis wasthe comparison of the difference of MPV between acute appendicitis and controls. Data wasanalyzed on SPSS version 21.0 by student’s t-test, Chi-square test and Pearson’s correlation (r)was used to evaluate association of MPV with platelet counts and leukocytes. A p-value of ≤0.05was taken significant. Results: The mean platelet volume and leukocytes were significantlyelevated in patients with acute appendicitis. MPV and leukocytosis in controls and cases werenoted as 7.93±2.1 vs. 9.10±2.9fl (p=0.0001) and 6980±120 vs. 13980±340 μL-1 respectively.MPV was positively correlated with leukocytosis (r=0.419) (p=0.0001), while Platelets showeda negative correlation. Conclusion: Elevated MPV and leukocytosis are observed in acuteappendicitis. MPV may be exploited for clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis but in a properclinical context along with leukocytosis.