Abstract:

Objective: To determine the changes in the mean platelet volume (MPV) levels of the babies who were hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) due to the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. It was also aimed to assess whether these changes were related to the severity of the disease, length of hospital stay, and Silverman Anderson respiratory severity score. Material and methods: In this retrospective study, the patient group included the newborns at ≥34 gestational weeks who were diagnosed with RSV infection in the NICU. The control group consisted of healthy newborns without RSV infection. MPV values of the subjects were compared between the groupswith and without RSV. Results: The MPV level in the group with RSV was significantly lower than the control group (p <0.05). The MPV levels did not correlate with the NICU length, duration of mechanical ventilation, the need for any respiratory support, and hemoglobin levels(p> 0.05).No statistically significant relationship was found between Silverman’s scores and MPV levels in the study patients (p <0.05).However, when we classified the respiratory score asmild (2-4 points), moderate (5-7 points), severe (8-10 points), a negative relationship between MPV levels and respiratory scores were found (p <0.05). Conclusion: We found that infection with RSV in newborns was associated with a decrease in the MPV.Further studies are needed in order to evaluate the impact of RSV infection on MPV values.

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