Vascular complications in type 2 diabetes patients can be predicted by taking the count of mean platelet volume. Diabetics develop a number of severe health complications including those related to blood circulation and heart. They can be prevented through a simple test to determine the mean platelet volume

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: Vascular complications in type 2 diabetes patients
can be predicted by taking the count of mean platelet volume.
Diabetics develop a number of severe health complications including
those related to blood circulation and heart. They can be prevented
through a simple test to determine the mean platelet volume.

A research study conducted by a team of doctors at Sri Devaraj Urs
Medical College in Kolar revealed that increased platelet activity
might play a role in the development of vascular complications. The
mean platelet volume or MPV can be taken as an indicator of bad
vascular events in diabetics like coronary artery disease, peripheral
arterial disease and stroke. Other related vascular problems are
diabetic nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy.

Dr AK Thomas and others studied about 600 people including 300 Type 2
diabetic patients. The others were normal people without diabetes.
They found that MPV was higher in people with diabetes when compared
with the normal subjects.

“Our results showed significantly higher MPV in diabetic patients than
in the non-diabetics. This indicates that elevated MPV could be the
cause either for or due to the effect of the vascular complications.
Hence, platelets may play a role and MPV can be used as a simple
parameter to assess the vascular events in diabetes,” the researchers
pointed out.

The doctors found that an increase in platelet activity leads to
diabetic complications related to blood circulation and heart.
Platelets play a major role in the onset of micro- and macro-vascular
diseases. The study gains significance in a country like India with
1.9 crore diabetic cases. A simple test on MPV could be used to
prevent major complications in later stage of life, thus saving a lot
on high-end medication.

“Diabetes and its vascular complications can cause a financial havoc,
become a burden to a country's national economy and dent its growth.
India, having the highest number of diabetics, faces such issues. MPV
will help in curbing morbidity and mortality,” they said.