Mean Platelet Volume in Crohn’s Disease Patients Predicts Sustained Response to a 52-Week Infliximab Therapy: A Pilot Study

BACKGROUND: The loss of response to infliximab in Crohn’s disease (CD) patients is currently a major clinical problem. Recently, mean platelet volume (MPV) has been proposed as a new biomarker of CD activity. Here, we hypothesized that MPV may be used as cheap and efficient biomarker of subclinical inflammation during 52-week therapy in CD patients responding to infliximab induction treatment. AIMS: The aim of study was to establish whether MPV at baseline and pre-infusion at week 14 are good predictors of sustained response after week 14 in CD patients undergoing 52-week infliximab therapy. METHODS: A retrospective study of 30 adult CD patients who underwent a 52-week course of treatment with infliximab and achieved response at week 14 to induction treatment was performed. The association between MPV, baseline disease parameters and maintained clinical response or remission during infliximab therapy was assessed. RESULTS: Higher MPV at week 14 was observed in CD patients with sustained response to infliximab after week 14 than in patients with loss of response (p = 0.0019). In patients with loss of response to maintenance infliximab treatment, lower ΔMPV between baseline and week 14 was calculated (p = 0.0003). MPV > 10.3 fl at week 14 predicts sustained response with 67 % sensitivity and 80 % specificity. ΔMPV between baseline and week 14 >0.4 fl predicts sustained response with 87 % sensitivity and 93 % specificity. CONCLUSION: MPV at week 14 and ΔMPV between baseline and week 14 are good predictors of sustained response to infliximab maintenance treatment in CD patients.