Reply to Letter to the Editor: Mean Platelet Volume may not be A Diagnostic Marker for Hepatocellular Carcinoma due to Chronic Hepatitis C Infection

Abstract

We would like to thank Beyan and Beyan for their interest in our article and for their comments on this article. They stated that mean platelet volume (MPV) can be affected by many factors including time of analysis after venipuncture, methods of analysis, anticoagulant used and specimen storage temperature . I do agree that there should be more details for this part in our study, but all MPV values were measured in dipotassium EDITA tubes within 1st hour after venipuncture, there was no different approach in MPV measurement between our patients and controls therefore, we don't believe this factor significantly influenced our results. It's true that MPV is affected by age and sex in some studies and not in other studies as prof/ Beyan and prof/ Beyan mentioned in their comments, but we adjust the age and sex mismatch in our study by using logistic analysis and found that MPV still independent predictor for HCC. In our study, MPV was less sensitive and less specific than AFP in diagnosis of HCC. So in conclusion MPV can be studied as an added marker for AFP to increase its specificity and sensitivity in diagnosis of HCC. However it can't be replace the role of AFP in diagnosis. Further studies are needed in this area.