The clinical significance of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio in Guillain–Barré syndrome

ABSTRACT

Purpose/Aim of the study: Guillain Barré syndrome (GBS) is a severe peripheral nervous disease that leads to muscle weakness and areflexia. We now commonly accept a synthesis that inflammation and immunity play key role in GBS pathogenesis. Many studies pointed out that neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) are novel promising markers of inflammation or immunity. Our study aimed to evaluate whether the NLR and the MLR were associated to GBS or not.

Materials and Methods: We measured blood cell count in 334 individuals including 117 GBS and 217 healthy controls.

Results: Our findings demonstrated that the GBS patients had higher levels of NLR and MLR than the healthy controls. The severe group also had higher levels of NLR and MLR compared to the mild group. We took the method of receiver-operating characteristic curve to find out the cut-off value of NLR for GBS occurrence and severity; it was 2.295 and 3.05, respectively. The cut-off values of MLR for GBS incidence and severity were the same, it was 0.235.

Conclusion: In the setting of GBS, the NLR and MLR were significantly increased and they may be pathophysiologically and clinically relevant in GBS. The NLR and MLR would be new biomarkers of medical application.

KEYWORDS:

• GBS
• NLR
• MLR
• inflammation
• immunity

Acknowledgments

We thank the doctors and the patients who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no financial or other conflict of interests.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province [grant number LQ15H090008].