Mean platelet volume/platelet count ratio in hepatocellular carcinoma

Mean platelet volume (MPV) has been actively investigated in liver disease such as steatosis, cirrhosis and hepatitis. Recently, MPV/platelet count (PC) ratio has been proposed as a predictor of long-term mortality after myocardial infarction. As PC is known to be decreased in various liver diseases such as cirrhosis, hepatosplenomegaly and malignancy, we planned to evaluate MPV/PC ratio in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in this study. Mean of MPV levels showed significant difference, which were 8.69 fl (range 6.7-12.2 fl) in patients group and 8.02 fl in control group (range 6.7-11.0 fl). In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the MPV/PC ratio (fl/(10(9)/l)) presented 74.5% of sensitivity and 96.5% of specificity at the criterion>0.0491 (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.884), while MPV alone showed 57.4% of sensitivity and 81.4% of specificity at the criterion>8.4 fl. Further studies should evaluate underlying pathogenic mechanisms of MPV/PC ratio difference and various possibilities of this ratio as an indicator of presence of a tumor in HCC.