Immature Platelet Fraction: A Platelet Parameter With Significant Clinical Utility

Abstract

Mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW) and the calculated plateletcrit (PCT) are reported to be useful in thrombocytopenia to assess platelet regeneration in the marrow. Our hypothesis was that the immature platelet fraction (IPF) is the most significant platelet parameter in patients with thrombocytopenia. Seven hundred twenty-two consecutive CBCs were analyzed on the Sysmex XN1000 (Sysmex Corporation, Kobe, Japan) using the PLT-F channel. Data on clinical presentation/diagnosis was obtained from the hospital information system and correlated with platelet parameters. Excluding duplicates and normal patients, 456 discrete patient samples were studied. Platelet parameters between patients with normal platelet counts (NPC, n = 212) and low platelet counts (LPC, n = 244) were significantly different (3.5% vs 12.4% [IPF]; 10.4 vs 11.7 fL [MPV]; 12.1 vs 14.8 [PDW] and 0.27 vs 0.1 [PCT], Mann Whitney U, P