Is neutrophyl to lymphocyte ratio really a useful marker for all grades of degenerative aortic stenosis?

OBJECTIVE: Inflammatory processes play an important role in cardiac valve calcification and ossification. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and degenerative aortic stenosis (AS).

METHODS: A total of 220 patients with AS and 158 healthy individuals who were a control group were included in the study. The NLR was calculated by dividing the number of neutrophils by number of lymphocytes in peripheral blood samples.

RESULTS: The study group consisted of 220 AS patients (mild/ moderate group: n=110; severe group: n=110) and 157 healthy controls. Both the mild/moderate AS group (p<0.001) and the severe AS group (p<0.001) had a significantly higher NLR compared with the control group. The NLR in the severe AS group was significantly higher than that of the mild/moderate AS group (p<0.001). The groups were similar with respect to other baseline characteristics. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis yielded a strong predictive ability of NLR for the presence of AS (Area under the curve=0.930; 95% CI [confidence interval], 0.898-0.963; p<0.001). A cut-off value of 2.310 for NLR had a sensitivity and specificity of 80.4% and 92.4%, respectively, for the presence of AS. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, NLR (Odds ratio: 43.8; 95% CI, 14.7-130.7) was the only independent predictor of AS.

CONCLUSION: The discriminative performance of NLR for AS is high. NLR is strongly and independently associated with AS.