Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction and aim: Mean platelet volume (MPV) is a new important indicator of platelet activity in atherosclerosis. Elevated MPV is associated with the presence of more metabolically active platelets. The aim of our study is to evaluate whether change of MPV value is associated with cabergoline treatment in patients with prolactinoma.

Materials and methods: Thirty patients with prolactinoma (mean age 33.4±8.5 years and body mass index (BMI): 28.1±7.8 kg/m²), and 30 age- and BMI matched healthy control subjects (mean age 31.0±7.0 years; BMI: 25.2±2.9 kg/m² were recruited in our study. Cumulative cabergoline (CCD) dose was calculated. The MPV value was evaluated before and after cabergoline therapy and was compared to control group. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Patients have hematological and other endocrinologic diseases including diabetes mellitus were excluded from the study. All complete blood count, biochemical and hormonal analysis were performed by automatic analyzer.

Results: According to our findings, serum prolactin levels in prolactinoma before and after the cabergoline treatment were significantly different (128.0±99.7 vs 35.5±39.5 ng/ml, P=0.0001, respectively). Mean cumulative cabergoline dose were calculated as 218.1±252.5 mg. We found that the mean pre-treatment MPV values in prolactinoma group were lower than post-treatment MPV values (8.9±0.8 and 9.6±0.8 fL, P=0.0001, respectively) and lower than control group (8.9±0.8 and 9.8±0.9 fL, P=0.0001, respectively). There was no correlation both between post-treatment MPV and CCD. Moreover, there were not any relationships between MPV and both prolactin levels before and after the treatment.

Conclusions: The cabergoline treatment in prolactinoma may relate high MPV value independent to cumulative cabergoline dose and prolactine levels. The future study need to clarify this increment of MPV during low dose cabergoline therapy.