Evaluation of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-lymphocyte ratio and red blood cell distribution width-platelet ratio as early predictor of acute pancreatitis in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a state of inflammation. It has been widely known that neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) to platelet ratio (RPR) reflect systemic inflammation. The aim of this study is to investigate whether these inflammatory markers could be used as reliable markers in early prediction of AP in pregnancy and if there is a relationship between disease severity and these markers.

METHODS: The study group consisted of 14 patients, who developed AP in ongoing pregnancy, and the control group consisted of 30 healthy pregnant women. NLR, PLR and RPR were calculated for both the groups.

RESULTS: NLR was significantly elevated in the AP group when compared with the controls (p = 0.00), but there was no statistically significant difference in terms of PLR and RPR (p > 0.05). ROC curve analysis results for NLR showed that there was a significant prediction power of NLR for AP (R(2) = 0.842; p < 0.001). For NLR parameter, if cut-off value is chosen to be 4.1030, then sensitivity is 71.4% and specificity is 100.0%. There was statistically significant and positive correlation between C-reactive protein (CRP) and glucose with NLR (p = 0.001, p = 0.043). It was seen that Ranson was close to be significant (p = 0.051).

CONCLUSION: NLR might be used as an early marker of AP and may have a role in prediction of disease severity.