What is new
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Modern techniques in causal inference were applied to understand the relationship between chronic hepatitis C virus infection and the monocyte-to-platelet ratio in complex survey data from the United States of America.
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Chronic hepatitis C virus infection alters a patient’s monocyte-to-platelet ratio, previous studies found an association with platelets (thrombocytopenia) but not monocytes at the population level.
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The monocyte-to-platelet ratio could be used as a tool to screen patients for hepatitis C virus diagnostic tests from a complete blood draw.
Introduction
Methods
Data, design and study population
Analytic sample and variable selection
Variable Name | Level | Total | Low MPR | High MPR | Rao-Scott X^2a |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
. | 5281 [64,245,530]b | 2754 (0.54) | 2527 (0.45) | ||
Chronic HCV = Positive (%) | . | 122 | 42 (0.90) | 80 (2.5) | < 0.001 |
Age (mean [SD]) | . | . | 42.74 (13.64) | 43.93 (14.36) | 0.054 |
Sex = Male | . | 2759 | 1220 (40.3) | 1539 (65.1) | < 0.001 |
Race (%) | . | < 0.001 | |||
Black | 1079 | 626 (10.9) | 453 (9.0) | ||
White | 2127 | 1091 (65.4) | 1036 (71.3) | ||
Hispanic | 1377 | 797 (15.4) | 580 (13.5) | ||
Other | 698 | 455 (8.30) | 243 (6.20) | ||
General Health (%) | . | 0.022 | |||
Excellent | 462 | 277 (10.80) | 185 (8.80) | ||
Very Good | 1487 | 877 (35.30) | 610 (32.30) | ||
Good | 3188 | 1747 (52.40) | 1441 (56.60) | ||
Poor | 144 | 68 (1.50) | 76 (2.30) | ||
Transfusion = Yes (%) | . | 427 | 242 (7.80) | 185 (8.3) | 0.723 |
Needle Use = Yes (%) | . | 146 | 63 (2.60) | 83 (3.10) | 0.479 |
Married = Lives Alone (%) | . | 2094 | 1202 (36.0) | 892 (34.50) | 0.312 |
Social Economic Status (%) | . | 0.88 | |||
≤ 1.30 | 1650 | 887 (20.70) | 763 (21.80) | ||
≤ 1.85 | 699 | 396 (11.10) | 303 (10.80) | ||
> 1.85 | 2824 | 1624 (66.3) | 1200 (65.5) | ||
White Blood Cell Count (mean [SD]) | . | . | 6.81 (1.93) | 8.00 (2.34) | < 0.001 |
Cancer Diagnosis = Yes (%) | . | 311 | 186 (8.70) | 125 (6.90) | 0.028 |
Anemia = Yes (%) | . | 515 | 117 (3.70) | 62 (2.10) | 0.006 |
Diabetes Diagnosis (%) | 0.003 | ||||
Not Diabetic | 4663 | 2672 (92.2) | 1991 (88.6) | ||
Pre-Diabetic | 103 | 49 (1.40) | 54 (2.30) | ||
Diabetic | 515 | 248 (6.40) | 267 (9.10) | ||
Average Alcohol Consumption per Day (mean [SD]) | . | . | 3.30 (29.13) | 3.54 (15.22) | 0.789 |
Statistical analysis
Transformation of the monocyte-to-platelet ratio
Descriptive statistics
Statistical inference
Sensitivity analysis
Results
Statistical analysis
Transformation of the monocyte-to-platelet ratio (MPR)
Descriptive statistics
Statistical inference
Primary analysis
Variables | Reference | Level | Adjusted Odds Ratio | Confidence Intervala |
---|---|---|---|---|
Chronic HCV | Negative | . | ||
. | Positive | 3.10 | 1.55–6.18 | |
Age | . | . | 1.01 | 1.00–1.02 |
Race | Black | . | ||
. | White | 1.12 | 0.93–1.36 | |
. | Hispanic | 0.78 | 0.62–0.98 | |
. | Other | 0.78 | 0.60–1.01 | |
Sex | Female | . | ||
. | Male | 3.35 | 2.89–3.88 | |
Needle Use | No | . | ||
. | Yes | 0.63 | 0.35–1.13 | |
Diabetes | Not Diabetic | . | ||
. | Pre-Diabetic | 1.77 | 0.90–3.47 | |
. | Diabetic | 1.06 | 0.79–1.43 | |
Cancer | No Diagnosis | . | ||
. | Diagnosis | 0.74 | 0.56–0.99 | |
WBC | . | . | 1.39 | 1.33–1.45 |