Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio as a Predictive Factor for Evaluation of Outcome in Critically Ill Patients

 Morbidity and mortality are higher in intensive care units (ICU). In this study hematological indexes such as NLR (Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio) and PLR (platelet to lymphocyte ratio) were investigated in the ICU patients.

We did a retrospective study on ICU patients older than 18 years between June 2019 and July 2019. We gathered medical and laboratory data in the first 24 hours of ICU hospitalization and analyzed them. There were two groups of survived and un-survived. The primary outcome measure was death in ICU.

We included 194 patients whose mean age was 66.7 ± 20.1 years, and 105(54%) patients were male. 76 (39%) patients were non-survivors. Non-survivors had significantly higher NLR value (mean, 16 ± 15.1) than the survivors (mean, 10.5 ± 14, p = .015). The PLR of survivors and non-survivors was 240.3 ± 156.7 and 320.3 ± 269.1, respectively. PLR was not different between groups (p >0.05).

These results suggest that NLR at admission is associated with higher mortality in the ICU among critically ill patients over 18 years old. Therefore, NLR at admission may be an alternative indicator of disease severity.