Prognostic Value of the Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Patients with Chronic Internal Carotid Artery Occlusion Complicated by Cerebral Infarction

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the prognostic value of the peripheral neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with chronic internal carotid artery occlusion (CICAO) complicated by cerebral infarction.

Patients and Methods

The clinical data of 99 CICAO patients complicated by cerebral infarction were retrospectively analyzed. The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was used to assess their 3-month prognosis, and a multivariate logistic regression model was established to explore risk factors for poor prognosis.

Results

Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that NLR (OR=2.114; 95% CI: 1.129–3.959) and baseline National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS; OR=1.288, 95% CI: 1.053–1.574) score were risk factors of poor prognosis. The area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve of NLR in predicting the 3-month outcome after onset was 0.717 (95% CI: 0.606–0.828, P<0.000). The optimal cut-off value was 3.22, with a sensitivity of 0.743 and a specificity of 0.791.

Conclusion

NLR is an independent risk factor for the poor prognosis of CICAO patients complicated by cerebral infarction and can serve as an indicator for clinical prognosis.

Keywords:

• chronic internal carotid artery occlusion
• cerebral infarction
• neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio
• prognosis
• predictive factors

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Suzhou Ninth People’s Hospital (No. KY2022-008-01) and conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Disclosure

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Suzhou Youth Science and technology project (KJXW2016065) and Basic research of Suzhou Medical and health care (SYSD2020044).