Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio as a predictor of disease severity in ulcerative colitis

Abstract

Background: Blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (N/L) ratio is an indicator of the overall inflammatory status of the body, and an alteration in N/L ratio may be found in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. The aims of this study were to investigate the utility of N/L ratio as a simple and readily available predictor for clinical disease activity in UC.

Methods: Twenty-six patients and 28 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. The neutrophil and lymphocyte counts were recorded, and the N/L ratio was calculated from these parameters. The extent of disease classified according to the Montreal classification, clinical disease activity was evaluated using a modified Truelove-Witts severity index, and endoscopic disease activities were classified according to Schroder et al.

Results: The serum N/L ratios of active patients were significantly higher than those of inactive UC and controls (P < 0.001). The optimum N/L ratio cut-off point for active UC was 2.47. There was no significant difference between inflammation parameters, disease extension, and disease activity.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that N/L ratio is higher in patients with active UC compared with controls and UC patients in remission and a cut-off value of 2.47 can be used to identify patients with active ulcerative colitis.

Conflict of interest statement

None.

© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Figures

Figure 1

Box‐plots to display the variation of serum N, L, and N/L ratio values between control and UC patients.

Figure 2

(a) Comparison of ROC curves among WBC, CRP, sedimentation, and N/L ratio variables. AUC values were 0.52(0.36–0.68), 0.72(0.55–0.85), 0.64(0.48–0.79), 0.59(0.42–0.74), respectively, and there was not any significant pair wise difference for AUC values (P > 0.05). (b) Determination of the optimal cut‐off value for N/L ratio.