The use of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio as a predictor for clinical outcomes in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage.

Objective: Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is used as an independent predictor for clinical outcomes in cancers, cardiovascular disorders and ischemic stroke. The prognostic role of NLR in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) is still controversial. The aim of this report is to conduct a meta-analysis to evaluate the prognostic significance NLR in patients with sICH.

Materials and Methods: All related articles were searched on PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials followed the PRISMA flow diagram. The quality of eligible studies were evaluated and the related data were extracted by two reviewers independently. The end points included the mortality and poor outcomes and subgroup analyses were performed.

Results: Five studies with 1944 subjects were included and had acceptable quality. The high NLR had a higher risk of in-hospital mortality (OR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.94-0.99, p = 0.02) and 90-day mortality (OR: 2.43; 95% CI: 1.01-5.83, p = 0.047); without association with the poor outcomes (OR: 1.17; 95% CI: 0.93-1.47, p = 0.18). After subgroup analyses, the high NLR correlated with an increased 90-day mortality in the high cut-off group (OR: 1.56; 95% CI: 1.15-2.13, p = 0.005). The high NLR additionally predicts poor outcomes in smaller hematoma group (OR: 1.16; 95% CI: 1.01-1.32, p = 0.04) and the high cut-off group (OR: 2.20; 95% CI: 1.54-3.14, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: The high NLR was significantly associated with in-hospital and 90-day mortality in patients with sICH. The NLR with cut-off of 7.5 had statistically significant potential for predicting mortality and poor outcomes, regardless of country, time of laboratory test and hematoma volumes.