Aim of the study: To evaluate mean platelet volume (MPV) in type 2 diabetic versus non-diabetic patients, as well as to investigate the associations between MPV and diabetic complications.

Materials and methods: This study included 416 patients divided into two groups. Group A comprised 265 type 2 diabetic patients (131 men) with a mean age of 67.4 ± 9.5 years and a mean diabetes duration of 14.5 ± 5.7 years. Group B comprised 151 non-diabetic patients (74 men) with a mean age of 68.6 ± 9.1 years. MPV (blood samples anticoagulated with sodium citrate) was measured in two blood cell counters (Sysmex SF 3000 and Cell-Dyn 3700).

Results: MPV was significantly higher (P = 0.01) in group A (14.2 ± 2.2 fl) than in group B (7.1 ± 1.2 fl). In group A MPV was significantly higher (P = 0.043) in patients with retinopathy (15.8 ± 1.3 fl) than in patients without retinopathy (10.9 ± 1.1 fl) and also significantly higher (P = 0.044) in patients with microalbuminuria (15.6 ± 1.2 fl) than in patients without microalbuminuria (10.1 ± 1.2 fl). No association, however, was found in group A between MPV and age, gender, duration of diabetes, insulin dependency, BMI, HbA_1c, coronary artery disease or dyslipidaemia.

Conclusions: MPV is higher in type 2 diabetic patients than in non-diabetic patients. Among type 2 diabetic patients MPV is higher in those who have microvascular complications (retinopathy or microalbuminuria).