Detection and Clinical Significance of Circulating Microvesicles in Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome

Objective Microvesicles (MV) released from blood cells play an important role in the progress of diseases. The purpose of this study is to detect circulating MV level of patients suffering from severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS). Methods The plasma samples of SFTS patients and healthy controls were collected. And MV from samples were isolated and MV levels were detected quantitatively. Results The results showed that the level of the circulating MV in SFTS patients was obviously higher than that of the healthy control, with statistically significant difference. Further analysis revealed that MV level was relevant to the severity of SFTS patients, namely the higher the concentration of MV, the more severity of the disease. Linear correlation analysis showed that the circulating MV level in SFTS was correlated positively with leukocyte count (r = 0.243, P < 0.05), but no correlation with the platelet count (r = 0.193, P >0.05). Conclusions We demonstrated that there existed high level of circulating MV in SFTS patients, and the level of circulating MV had a close relationship with the severity of the disease and leukocyte count. Therefore, monitoring the level of circulating MV may provide a new indicator for predicting the prognosis of SFTS patients.