Hematological Profiles in Women with Lipedema: Exploratory Analysis of Platelet Distribution Width and Mean Platelet Volume

BACKGROUND: Lipedema is a chronic adipose tissue disorder predominantly affecting women, often misdiagnosed as obesity or lymphedema. Emerging evidence points to microvascular dysfunction and chronic inflammation in its pathophysiology. This study aimed to compare complete blood count (CBC) parameters and derived inflammatory indices between women with lipedema and age-matched healthy controls, focusing on the potential diagnostic value of platelet indices such as PDW and MPV. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational study including 45 women with clinically confirmed lipedema and 40 age matched healthy controls. CBC parameters and derived inflammatory indices were compared between groups without adjustment for body mass index (BMI). RESULTS: The study included 45 women with lipedema and 40 healthy controls with similar age distributions. No statistically significant between group differences were observed in complete blood count parameters after correction for multiple comparisons, although PDW and MPV were numerically higher in the lipedema group. CONCLUSION: In this exploratory study, PDW and MPV were numerically higher in women with lipedema than in controls, but these differences lost statistical significance after correction for multiple comparisons. These findings argue against PDW or MPV as standalone diagnostic markers of lipedema and indicate that future research should prioritize larger, BMI-matched cohorts and multimodal approaches that integrate platelet indices with tissue-level or imaging markers.