Effect of Glycemic Control on Platelet Indices in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

The aim of this study is to compare children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) with healthy controls in terms of some laboratory parameters and platelet indices.

This study is retrospective. We used glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values to classify patients as <7% (good) and ≥7% (poor). The platelet mass (PM) value was calculated from the hemogram data (PM=PLTxMPV).

The study included a total of 87 patients who had been diagnosed with T1DM and 120 healthy participants. Fasting glucose, urea, creatinine, hemoglobin (HGB), red blood cell (RBC), mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW) were significantly higher in the patient group than in the healthy control group. Platelet (PLT), plateletcrit (PCT) and PM were significantly lower in the poor glycemic control than in the good glycemic control and healthy groups. The PDW in the healthy control group was statistically significantly lower than in the good and poor glycemic control groups. In the group with poor glycemic control, there was a positive and significant correlation between the MPV and the level of HbA1c (r=0.401, p<0.05).

To sum up, our results show that the MPV and the PDW are significantly higher in children with T1DM than in healthy control. In the group with poor glycemic control, PLT levels were significantly lower than in the other two groups, leading to a decrease in PCT and PM levels. Further studies are needed to understand whether the decrease in PLT levels is due to the hyperactivity and rapid turnover of PLT.