An elevated neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio independently predicts mortality in chronic critical limb ischemia

• Published in: Journal of vascular surgery 2010-09, Vol.52 (3), p.632-636
• Main Authors: Spark, James Ian, MBChB, FRCS, MD, FRACS, Sarveswaran, Janahan, MBChB, MRCS, Blest, Nadia, MBBS, Charalabidis, Peter, MBBS, FRACS, Asthana, Sonal, MBChB, MD, FRCS
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Biomarkers - blood; Chi-Square Distribution; Chronic Disease; Critical Illness; Emergency and intensive care: renal failure. Dialysis management; Extremities - blood supply; Humans; Intensive care medicine; Ischemia - blood; Ischemia - mortality; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Leukocyte Count; Lymphocyte Count; Lymphocytes; Medical sciences; Neutrophils; Predictive Value of Tests; Prognosis; Proportional Hazards Models; Prospective Studies; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Surgery; Surgery (general aspects). Transplantations, organ and tissue grafts. Graft diseases; Time Factors; Troponin - blood; Up-Regulation; Vascular surgery: aorta, extremities, vena cava. Surgery of the lymphatic vessels
• ISSN: 0741-5214; 1097-6809
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvs.2010.03.067

Background Atherogenesis represents an active inflammatory process with leucocytes playing a major role. An elevated white blood cell count has been shown to be predictive of death in coronary artery disease patients. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive ability of neutrophil count and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio for predicting survival in patients with critical lower limb ischemia (CLI). Methods All patients admitted to a single vascular unit with CCLI were identified prospectively over a 2-year period starting from January 2005. Patient demographics, clinical history, comorbidity, and risk factors for peripheral vascular disease were documented. The white blood count and differential cell count at admission was recorded. Overall, patient mortality was studied as the primary outcome. Results One hundred forty-nine patients were identified, with a median age of 72 years (Interquartile range [IQR], 65.7-81). A neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) of ≥5.25 was taken as the cutoff, based upon the receiver-operating-characteristic.The median follow up was 8.7 months (IQR, 3.1-16). During the follow-up period, there have been 62 deaths (43.4%). An elevated neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and a high troponin level (>0.1) were found to be the only two factors independently associated with shorter survival on multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model. Conclusions This study suggests that an elevated NLR can identify a poor-risk subset of patients among those being treated for critical limb ischemia. This simple, inexpensive test may, therefore, add to risk stratification of these high-risk patients.