The relationship between inflammatory markers extracted from complete blood count and active pulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

Background: Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is a fatal infectious disease and remains a major global health problem especially in undeveloped countries. Delay in diagnosis and treatment may cause worsening of the disease, increasing the risk of mortality and easily spreading. This investigation aims to explore the correlation between inflammatory markers extracted from complete blood count (CBC) including red cell distribution width (RDW), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, RDW to platelet count ratio (RPR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and other inflammatory markers with active PTB disease. These biomarkers are easily accessible in least possible time and low facility centers even in undeveloped regions to detect inflammation. Method: This is a retrospective cohort study. Recorded laboratory and clinical data of 45 diagnosed PTB patients hospitalized in Tohid Hospital (Sanandaj, Iran) were gathered by scanning the records from September 2013 to February 2017. Forty-five age-matched and sex-matched healthy individuals were included as controls. All CBC tests were done by Sysmex KX21N. All Leukocyte differential counts were done by blinded skilled hematologist. Results: PTB patients had a significantly higher RPR values compared with control group (0.041 versus 0.058, P = 0.0001). Neutrophil counts, RDW, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and C-reactive protein values were also higher in patient with active PTB opposed to control group. Conclusion: RPR is a novel useful inflammatory marker easily done and calculated from a routine CBC report which can be used as a supportive available markers to help the management of patients suffering from active PTB. The inclusion of RPR in all CBC reports is recommended.

Monocyte, Lymphocyte and Neutrophil Ratios – Easy-to-Use Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Pediatric Tuberculosis

“…[36][37][38][39] Findings from earlier studies in adults have also shown the association of higher ratios in TB disease when compared to healthy controls. [15][16][17][18][20][21][22][23][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] One study from Spain including 60 adults (21 with TB disease, 19 with TB infection and 20 healthy TB exposed) reported a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of 81% (cutoff of 2.85 and AUC of 0.83) to classify patients with TB disease versus exposed uninfected individuals. 40 Another study from Turkey including 134 adults (51 with TB disease, 40 with sarcoidosis and 43 controls) reported a sensitivity of NLR of 88% and a specificity of 80% (cutoff of 2.16 and AUC of 0.92) to classify patients with TB disease versus controls.…”