International Journal of Scientific Research in Dental and Medical Sciences

International Journal of Scientific Research in Dental and Medical Sciences

Significance of Platelet Count and Platelet Indices for Assessing the Presence and Severity of Preeclampsia: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Swati Agarwal 1
Gunja Dwivedi 1
Nilam Charaniya 1
Aman Rahimbhai Charaniya 2
1 Department of Pathology, Rabindranath Tagore Medical College, Udaipur, India
2 Department of Internal Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
10.30485/ijsrdms.2026.582602.1705
Abstract
Background and aim: Preeclampsia is a multisystem hypertensive disorder of pregnancy associated with considerable maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Platelet activation and increased platelet consumption are key features of its pathophysiology and may be reflected by alterations in platelet count and platelet indices. This study evaluated the clinical significance of platelet count, mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), and plateletcrit (PCT) in women with preeclampsia and their association with disease severity.
Material and methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, 100 pregnant women (50 normotensive controls and 50 with preeclampsia) were recruited from M.B. Government Hospital and R.N.T. Medical College, Udaipur, India. Platelet parameters were measured using an automated haematology analyser. Statistical analyses included one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, and ROC curve analysis.
Results: Women with preeclampsia had significantly lower platelet counts than controls, with a further decline as disease severity increased (p<0.001). MPV and PDW increased significantly with worsening disease severity (p=0.024 and p=0.001, respectively), whereas PCT showed no significant difference between groups (p=0.853). ROC analysis demonstrated moderate diagnostic performance for platelet count (AUC=0.75) and PDW (AUC=0.73), while MPV and PCT showed lower discriminatory value.
Conclusions: Platelet count and PDW are inexpensive, readily available biomarkers that may assist in assessing preeclampsia severity. However, given their moderate diagnostic accuracy and the cross-sectional design of this study, they should be considered complementary to established diagnostic criteria. Larger prospective multicentre studies are needed to confirm these findings before routine clinical use.
Keywords
Mean Platelet Volume
Platelet Count
Pre-Eclampsia
Subjects
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International Journal of Scientific Research in Dental and Medical Sciences
Volume 8, Issue 1
Winter 2026
Pages 13-18

  • Receive Date 01 January 2026
  • Revise Date 18 February 2026
  • Accept Date 01 March 2026
  • Publish Date 01 March 2026