Evaluation of Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte Ratio in Autoimmune Neurological Diseases: A Retrospective Study.

Objective: The differential count of white blood cells is a widely-used biomarker of systemic inflammation. Recently, the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been identified as a new potential indicator of subclinical systemic inflammation in various diseases, including sepsis, vestibular neuritis, psoriasis and the like. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of NLR in multiple sclerosis (MS), myasthenia gravis (MG) and Guillainbarré syndrome (GBS) patients and its relationship with inflammatory response and the disease activity. Method: This hospital-based retrospective study consisted of 219 inpatients who were admitted to Bezmialem University Hospital, department of neurology from 2014 to 2019. Sixty-five of these patients were MS patients, 65 were MG patients, 39 were GBS patients and 50 were tension-type headache patients who were our control group. All patients were absolutely diagnosed patients and all NLR levels were calculated from the first blood counts at the time of diagnosis. All statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS for Windows version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Results: Two hundred nineteen patients were enrolled in this study. The mean age of the patients were 47.05±17.26 years. Out of 219 patients, 131 (59.8 %) were women, 88 (40.2%) were men and the distribution between groups was balanced. We analyzed the NLR levels and all three groups of patients had significantly higher NLRs (p<0.001) than those of the control group. In the MS group, NLR levels were 2.89 (1.43-42.02); in the MG group, NLR levels were 3.08 (1.62-25.80); in the GBS group, NLR levels were 4.27(1.68-175.7); in the control group, NLR values were 1.44(0.85-2.73). No significant difference was found between NLR levels of MS, GBS, and MG patients. Conclusion: Our findings of a significantly higher NLR levels in MS, GBS and MG patients indicated that NLR might serve as a possible biomarker in autoimmune neurological diseases. More studies should be published to assure the validity of this conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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