Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in patients with coronary heart disease

Abstract

Introduction. Despite significant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cardiovascular pathology, it is diseases associated with atherosclerosis that are still the main cause of mortality and disability. Atherosclerosis is based on local inflammation of the vascular wall and disruption of the lipid profile. Neutrophillymphocyte ratio is an indicator that can serve as a new diagnostic criterion of atherosclerotic changes. Materials and methods. The study enrolled 240 patients with coronary heart disease (150 men and 90 women). The subjects gave voluntary informed consent to participate in the study. All patients with CHD underwent coronary angiography, echocardiography and general blood analysis. Statistical processing of the results was performed using "Microsoft Office Excel" for Windows and "Statistica 10.0" software. Mann-Whitney test was used to assess the statistical significance of differences between the two groups for any parameters in the distribution of features other than normal. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient and its significance were used to assess the relationship between the two traits. Results. An increase in NLS values with progression of atherosclerotic coronary lesion severity was found; an inverse correlation between NLS value and LV ejection fraction (EF) was detected. Discussion. Our results, demonstrating an increase in this index with increasing severity of atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary arteries, are consistent with the literature data. Conclusion. Taking into account the fundamental role of inflammation in atherogenesis, as well as the difficulties of routine determination of expensive markers in everyday practice, the inclusion of an uncomplicated and economically affordable index of LVEF to assess the severity of coronary atherosclerosis and stratify the risk of adverse outcomes in patients with CHD is of undoubted scientific and practical interest and dictates the need for further study of its use in various patient cohorts.