Association of C-reactive protein and Interleukin-6 with plateletcrit in critically-ill patients with thrombocytosis
Abstract
Background & objective: Thrombocytosis is not a very uncommon clinical condition. In the recent past, rapid development has been seen in the identification of the role of various biomarkers in diagnosis as well as prognosis. We evaluated the use of various platelet indices, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in the differential diagnosis of thrombocytosis (reactive or clonal).
Methodology: This is a case-series study, and we included a total of 94 patients with thrombocytosis of varying etiologies. Serum IL-6 and C-reactive protein levels were measured in every patient.
Results: Patients with reactive thrombocytosis demonstrated substantially elevated inflammatory activity, with IL-6 levels (22.92 ± 23.46 pg/mL), versus low levels in clonal thrombocytosis, 3.72 ± 5.54 pg/mL. The reactive thrombocytosis group exhibited CRP levels of 67.27 ± 68.06 mg/L compared to near-normal CRP levels, 4.28 ± 6.57 mg/L. Patients with clonal thrombocytosis demonstrated significantly elevated platelet counts 801.31 ± 272.98 versus 500.33 ± 6.71 plateletcrit values 0.82 ± 0.24 versus 0.50 ± 0.06. Both patient groups exhibited significant correlations between interleukin-6 and CRP levels. Additionally, reactive thrombocytosis patients showed a meaningful association between CRP levels and platelet counts, which was absent in the clonal group.
Conclusion: Platelet count and plateletcrit measurements can serve as useful discriminatory markers between clonal and reactive thrombocytosis. Similarly, serum interleukin-6 and CRP levels provide valuable diagnostic information for differentiating these two thrombocytosis types.
Abbreviations: CRP: C-reactive protein, IL-6: interleukin-6, PDW: platelet distribution width, TCIPA: tumor cell-induced platelet activation
Keywords: Platelet, Thrombosis, Inteleukine-6, C-reactive protein.
Citation: Al-Sattar HIA, Kashmoola MA. Association of C-reactive protein and Interleukin-6 with plateletcrit in critically ill patients with thrombocytosis. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2025;29(8):875-882. DOI: 10.35975/apic.v29i8.2737
Received: April 10, 2025; Revised: July 24, 2025; Accepted: October 22, 2025
