Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio: an inflammation marker related to cardiovascular risk in children

Abstract

Low-grade chronic inflammation plays a pathogenic role in cardiovascular disease. An increase in the ratio of circulating neutrophils to lymphocytes (N/L ratio) may serve as a marker of cardiovascular risk in adults. It was the study objective to study whether N/L ratio associates with vascular parameters in children. Subjects were 501 prepubertal and early pubertal Caucasian children (mean age 8.0 years; mean body mass index (BMI) Z-score 0.2 ± 0.9; 266 boys and 235 girls) recruited within an ongoing population-based study. The subjects were stratified into three groups according to age. Neutrophil, lymphocyte, BMI, waist circumference, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), assessed in all children. The N/L ratio, derived from the absolute neutrophil and lymphocyte counts. In children aged < 7 years (n=190, all prepubertal), no associations were observed between N/L ratio and either anthropometric or cardiovascular parameters. In children aged 7-9 years (n=171, 1.7% early pubertal), higher N/L ratio associated with higher BMI Z-score and waist circumference (p=0.008 to p < 0.0001). In children aged >9 years (n=140, 29.2% early pubertal), N/L ratio associated again with BMI Z-score and waist circumference and also positively with SBP and cIMT (all p=0.008 to p<0.0001). These associations remained significant in linear regression models following adjustment for possible confounding variables such as age, gender, fasting triglycerides, C-reactive protein and puberty (and for SBP and cIMT, adjustment also for BMI). In conclusion, our results provide the first evidence that a higher N/L ratio is associated with a less favourable cardiovascular profile in children and delineate the development of these associations from late childhood onwards.

Influence of Diets with Varying Essential/Nonessential Amino Acid Ratios on Mouse Lifespan

“…Serum and urine levels of albumin and creatinine were assessed with an ILab Aries (Instrumentation Laboratory, Lexington, MA, USA) automatic analyzer. Serum levels of haptoglobin (Hpg) [31] and the neutrophils to lymphocytes ratio (NLR) [32,33] were also assessed as inflammatory markers. These analyses were carried out by personnel of the “Division of Laboratory Animals” of IZSLER (Brescia, Italy).…”

Body Weight Loss and Tissue Wasting in Late Middle-Aged Mice on Slightly Imbalanced Essential/Non-essential Amino Acids Diet

“…Albumin and creatinine concentrations were measured in serum and urine using a biochemical automatic analyzer ILab Aries (Instrumentation Laboratory, Bedford, MA). Neutrophils to Lymphocytes ratio (NLR) was determined as a marker of inflammation ( 17 , 18 ).…”

The Effects of Pre-Existing Hyponatremia and Subsequent-Developing Acute Kidney Injury on In-Hospital Mortality: A Retrospective Cohort Study

“…Biochemistry analysis including serum glucose was performed using random blood or urine samples. For the inflammatory markers, we used white blood cell counts, red cell distribution width (RDW) [ 11 ], neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) [ 29 ], and C-reactive protein (CRP).…”