Relationships Between Disease Severity and the C-reactive Protein/Albumin Ratio and Various Hematological Parameters in Patients With Acne Vulgaris

Abstract

Objective: Acne vulgaris, an inflammatory disease, was investigated in this study with the claim that the C-reactive protein (CRP)/albumin ratio and some hematological parameter ratios have the potential to be used as inflammatory markers to monitor disease severity and prognosis. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with two groups of patients aged 18-65 years, 61 patients diagnosed with acne vulgaris and 35 healthy control patients, and routine hemogram and biochemical parameters were compared. The Global Acne Severity Index was used to determine the severity of acne vulgaris. Results: The median age of acne patients was 22.0 (IQR=5.0) and the median age of healthy volunteers was 30.0 (IQR=14.0). There were 75.4% (n=46) women in the acne group and 77.1% (n=27) women in the control group. Among the acne patients, 42.6% (n=26) had mild acne, and 41% (n=25) had moderate acne severity. A significant difference was found between the study groups in terms of CRP/albumin ratio, CRP, monocyte/lymphocyte ratio (MLR), lymphocyte/albumin ratio (LAR), and monocyte/CRP ratio (MCR) according to laboratory test results and calculated test ratios (p<0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) value of the CRP/albumin ratio in the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis between the acne and control groups was 0.660, and its cut-off value was found to be 0.236 with 68.6% sensitivity and 68.9% specificity. Conclusion: This study is the first to compare the CRP/albumin ratio with the severity of acne vulgaris in the literature. CRP/albumin ratio and MCR may serve as inflammatory markers that can be used to monitor the severity of acne vulgaris.