Study of Mean Platelet Volume in Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension

Abstract

As pulmonary hypertension is a hemodynamic definition, rather than being a primary disease state, virtually all disorders that affect pulmonary vasculature may cause PH. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which forms group 1 of the Venice classification, constitutes a group of disorders that are characterized by hypertrophic and thrombotic obstructive changes in the pulmonary arterial tree. Platelet abnormalities and abnormal platelet activation are important mediators of disease progression, as they both contribute to thrombotic obstruction of pulmonary arteries and induce vessel remodeling. In view of the above, the present study was undertaken to investigate platelet activation in different causes of pulmonary hypertension by means of mean platelet volume measurement. A total of 40 patients with different causes of pulmonary hypertension, and 20 controls were included in the study with age range from 25 to 68, all patients and controls’ past medical data, admission echocardiograms, PFT and complete blood counts were reviewed.