Korean J Gastroenterol.  2002 Feb;39(2):108-113.

Relationship between Thrombocytopenia and Serum Thromobopoietin Concentration in Patients with Chronic Liver Diseases

• Cho YK
• Kim BI
• Koo ES
• Kim SY
• Kim CS
• Park CY
• Sohn CI
• Jeon WK
• Jung ES
• Lee SH
• Lee DH

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The major origin of thrombocytopenia in liver cirrhosis is attributed to enlarged spleen. In order to determine the influence of thromboprotein (TPO) on the origin of thrombocytopenia in liver disease, we measured serum TPO levels in patients with chronic liver diseases.
METHODS
The study included 18 controls, 26 patients with chronic viral hepatitis, 35 patients with viral liver cirrhosis, and 28 patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis. We determined their serum thrombopoietin levels by ELISA.
RESULTS
The TPO levels of patients with chronic viral hepatitis (147.9 +/- 40.9 pg/mL) was significantly higher than those in patients with viral cirrhosis (95.9 +/- 50.0 pg/mL), alcoholic cirrhosis (100.8 +/- 43.5 pg/mL) or controls (108.1 +/- 41.7 pg/mL). In the patients with viral and alcoholic liver cirrhosis, TPO showed a significant positive relationship with prothrombin time (rho=0.4315, p=0.011 vs rho=0.4171, p=0.030) and albumin (rho=0.4939, p=0.003 vs rho=0.4852, p=0.010). However, TPO levels had a significant inverse relationship with Child-Pugh score (rho=-0.6151, p=0.000 vs rho=-0.4658, p=0.014).
CONCLUSION
Serum TPO levels were elevated in patients with chronic viral hepatitis by compensatory mechanism. Along with hypersplenism, low TPO production may play a role in the development of thrombocytopenia in patients with liver cirrhosis, but further studies are needed.

Keyword

Thrombopoietin; Thrombocytopenia; Liver cirrhosis; Chronic viral hepatitis; Correlation

MeSH Terms

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Fibrosis
Hepatitis
Humans
Hypersplenism
Liver Cirrhosis
Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic
Liver Diseases*
Liver*
Prothrombin Time
Splenomegaly
Thrombocytopenia*
Thrombopoietin
Thrombopoietin