Maternal peripheral blood platelet-to-white blood cell ratio and platelet count as potential diagnostic markers of histological chorioamnionitis-related spontaneous preterm birth.

Background: Histological chorioamnionitis (HCA) is one of the leading causes of spontaneous preterm birth, thus, to identify novel biomarkers for the early diagnosis of HCA is in a great need.
Objective: To investigate the diagnostic value of maternal peripheral blood platelet-to-white blood cell ratio (PLT/WBC) and platelet (PLT) counts in HCA-related preterm birth.
Methods: A total of 400 patients with preterm birth were enrolled in this study: non-HCA group (n = 193) and HCA group (n = 207), and 87 full-term pregnancies were enrolled as the control. The peripheral blood of the participators was collected, and the neutrophil count, WBC count, platelet count, and levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin were recorded, and the platelet-to-white blood cell ratio (PLT/WBC) of the participators was calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve has been drawn to show the sensitivity and specificity of PLT/WBC and PLT count for the diagnosis of HCA-related spontaneous preterm birth patients.
Results: The neutrophil count, WBC count, and procalcitonin show no significant differences among the three groups, and the PLT count, PLT/WBC, and CRP (P < 0.05) were significantly increased in HCA group compared with non-HCA group; moreover, the area under the curve (AUC) of PLT/WBC, PLT, and CRP was 0.744 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.6966-0.7922), 0.8095 (95% CI, 0.7676-0.8514), and 0.5730 (95% CI, 0.5173-0.6287), respectively.
Conclusion: Platelet count and PLT/WBC may become a potential biomarker of HCA-related spontaneous preterm birth.
(© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)