European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background/aims: COPD is among the significant health complications in entire world; studies have shown that there is systemic inflammation with pulmonary inflammation in case of COPD. To detect the systemic inflammatory response, neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in peripheral blood which is important biomarker. NLR hasn’t been studied in patients having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Current study was targeted to determine the importance of NLR as inflammatory marker in patients with COPD.
Methods: The neutrophil and lymphocyte count in the peripheral blood was found out from blood count (CBC) reports. The NLR was determined by dividing neutrophil count from lymphocyte count. COPD patients were diagnosed with Spirometry. Then the NLR was compared in patients having stable COPD (n = 50), and healthy controls (n = 50.
Results: The neutrophil count was considerably greater in COPD patients matched with the healthy individuals (p < 0.001) whereas the lymphocyte count was suggestively lower in patients having COPD patients when compared to perfectly healthy individuals (p < 0.001).NLR values were considerably higher among patients with stable COPD patients than controls (p < 0.001). There were no noteworthy variance in the total leucocyte of COPD patients and healthy individuals.
Conclusion: It is concluded that the increase in the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in COPD patients compared to healthy individuals may be an indicator of systemic inflammation in patients with COPD.