Assessment of Platelet/ Lymphocyte Ratio as a Predictor of Erythropoietin Resistance in Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract

Background: Platelet / lymphocyte ratio has recently been investigated in different clinical conditions associated with hemodialysis and its association with other diseases has been assessed. The purpose of the study was to assess platelet lymphocyte ratio as a predictor of erythropoietin resistance in hemodialysis patients.
 Methods: The study population consisted of 60 hemodialysis patients, who were subdivided into two groups according to the response to erythropoietin stimulating agents (ESAs) .treatment. Group 1 included 30 patients treated with ESAs with good response to it and group 2 included 30 patients treated with ESAs but with resistance to it. The platelet/ lymphocyte ratio was calculated for each patient and compared between both groups.
 Results: Platelet lymphocyte ratio of group 2 was significantly higher compared to that of group 1 (P=0.001).
 Conclusion: PLR is a useful parameter to predict erythropoietin resistance in hemodialysis patients.

Usefulness of Platelet to Lymphocyte Ratio as a marker of Erythropoietin Resistance in Hemodialysis Patients

“…Sheikh et al (18) found that PLR had a sensitivity of 93%, a specificity of 80%, a positive predictive value of 82%, and a negative predictive value of 92%, yielding an overall accuracy of 87%, our cutoff value for PLR was 125.…”

“…Additionally, Taymez et al (17) found that PLR levels increased from the 25th to the 75th percentile on the EHRI (P= 0.032) when comparing the 25th and 50th percentiles. Moreover, Sheikh et al (18) found that EPO resistant group had much higher mean values of platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), with statistically significant difference as (P=0.001). This is mostly contributed to the difference in the study population characteristics regarding the ethnicity of patients, durations of their illness and different sample size, along with different ESA generics used in these studies.…”