Surrogate Inflammatory Markers and Some Correlates in Pre-dialysis Chronic Kidney Disease Patients: a cross-sectional study Surrogate Inflammatory Markers in pre-dialysis, CKD

Abstract

Objective: Chronic kidney disease is characterized by a state of chronic inflammation which is associated with poor cardiovascular disease outcomes. The study determined the prevalence of elevated neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-lymphocyte ratio as surrogate markers of inflammation and their association with some cardiovascular risk factors among pre-dialysis CKD patients.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study to determine and compare the prevalence of elevated NLR and PLR. The correlation between these surrogate inflammatory markers and some cardiovascular risk factors was determined. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 software. P-value of < 0.05 was taken as significant.

Results: This study involved 51 pre-dialysis CKD patients and 51 controls with mean ages of 50.96±11.42 years and 48.31±9.83 years, respectively. The prevalence of elevated NLR was significantly higher in the CKD group (35.3% vs13.7%; P=0.010). In the CKD group, there was significant negative correlation between NLR and eGFR (r= -0.393; P=0.004), hemoglobin concentration (r= -0.543; P=<0.001) and HDL (r= -0.292; P=0.037). There was significant positive correlation between NLR and PLR (r=0.669; P=<0.001), TC:HDL (r=0.334; P=0.017), AIP(r=0.289; P=0.042) and LDL:HDL (r=0.320; P=0.020). There was significant positive correlation between PLR, NLR (r=0.695; P=<0.001) and AIP (r=0.283; P=0.047). There was significant negative correlation between PLR and estimated GFR (r=- 0.448; P=0.001), hemoglobin concentration (r= -0.596; P=<0.001), serum albumin (r= -0.388; P=0.005), serum HDL-C (r= -0.387; P= 0.005).

Conclusion: NLR and PLR were significantly higher in pre-dialysis CKD patients and were associated with cardiovascular risk. They should be routinely used to identify those with high cardiovascular risk.