Platelets and the clinical course of Crohn’s disease

Background
Crohn’s disease (CD) is a chronic, autoimmune, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) characterised by periods of exacerbations and remissions. Autoimmune disorders caused by undetermined factors lead to inflammation in the intestinal mucosa. Presently, there is a growing interest in the role of platelets in the assessment of inflammatory lesions in CD. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to answer the question of whether routinely measured platelet indices: concentration of platelets (PLT), the mean platelet volume (MPV), plateletcrit (PCT) could become biomarkers for monitoring the course of CD.

Material and methods
In the study programme, there were enrolled 100 patients with a diagnosed CD with a different clinical course, disease location and heterogeneous therapy. In all patients, there were collected blood and stool samples for the assessment of CRP, blood count and fecal calprotectin evaluation. The clinical state of each patient was classified using the Harvey-Bradshaw index.

Results
The study showed a positive, statistically significant correlation between fecal calprotectin, CRP, WBC, the Harvey-Bradshaw index and the number of platelets and PCT. Furthermore, the analysis showed a statistically significant negative correlation between MPV and the number of WBC, CRP and fecal calprotectin.

Conclusions
Our study showed that platelet indices are a valuable, non-invasive and widely accessible method to assess mucosal healing and the clinical status of the patient.