Neutrophil–Lymphocyte Ratio and Carotid–Intima Media Thickness in Patients With Behçet Disease Without Cardiovascular Involvement

Abstract

Behçet disease (BD) is associated with endothelial dysfunction and chronic inflammation. The neutrophil-lymphocyte (N/L) ratio and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) are markers of inflammation and vascular risk, respectively. We assessed the relationship between cIMT values and N/L ratio in BD (65 patients and 62 control participants). There were statistically significant differences in N/L ratios and cIMT values between the patients with BD and control group (P < .001). There were moderate positive correlations between cIMT value, C-reactive protein, and N/L ratio in patients with BD. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis suggested that the optimum N/L ratio cutoff point for patients with BD was 1.29, with a sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value of 97, 77, 96, and 75%, respectively (area under curve: 0.691, 95% confidence interval = 0.600-0.782, P < .001). The N/L ratio may be a useful index of BD activity.

Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio: Can clinicians really trust it as an inflammatory indicator?

“…In context, the NLR may use activity marker for BD patients. We have shown that NLR levels were significantly higher in active BD patients compared with inactive patients [6].…”

Evaluation of mean platelet volume and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio as a diagnostic indicator in patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis

“…Recently, NLR has begun to be used to measure severity of inflammation in a variety of diseases like cardiovascular diseases, malignancies and dia- betes. [22] In a study by Demir et al, [23] NLR was related to inflammation linked to myocardial ischemia while another study by Muhammed Suliman et al [24] stated that NLR was an inexpensive method to show inflammation in acute coronary diseases. In our study, we did not find a significant difference between patient and control groups in terms of NLR values.…”

Etiology, Immunopathogenesis and Biomarkers in Behçet’s disease

“…Increasing evidence supports a role for neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a cheap and simple disease activity marker in BD. NLR has been proposed as a surrogate marker for endothelial dysfunction and inflammation, and several authors have proposed the use of NLR as part of evaluation for disease activity in BD [184][185][186][187].…”