Background and Aims: liver biopsy is the gold standard in assessing liver histology and stellate cells activation by specific markers as alpha-smooth muscle actin ( a-SMA). However, this procedure is invasive and costly, hence, non invasive tests have been proposed to assess the severity of hepatic fibrosis. Mean platelet volume (MPV) is a laboratory marker obtained from complete blood count (CBC) analyzer in routine clinical practice. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether MPV, hepatic stellate cells activity could be markers for fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients.
Methods: A total of 83 patients with CHC and 20 control subjects were included in this study. MPV was recorded at the time of admission. Activated hepatic stellate cells were identified immunohistochemically using antibody to a-SMA immunostaining in 53 of studied cases of CHC and 10 control samples. The clinical characteristics of chronic hepatitis C patients including demographics, laboratory findings were reviewed and liver biopsies were scored for fibrosis in Early Cancer Detection Unit-Benha University and Pathology Department of Faculty of Medicine, Benha University. Results: Statistically significant increase in MPV values was observed in CHC patients (9.006±1.71) compared to healthy controls (8.01±0.97) (p