The association between platelet/lymphocyte ratio, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, and carotid artery stenosis and stroke following carotid endarterectomy

Abstract

Objectives Platelet/lymphocyte ratio is considered to be a recent biomarker which is not only related with inflammation but also associated with the atherosclerotic process. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between carotid artery stenosis, platelet/lymphocyte ratio, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, and mean platelet volume in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. Methods A total of 160 patients (127 males, 33 females; mean age 69.98 +/- 9.76 years; range 48-92 years), who were undergoing carotid endarterectomy due to severe carotid artery stenosis, were evaluated and compared with 201 patients (140 males, 61 females, mean age 66.30 +/- 9.24 years, range 41-90 years) without severe carotid artery stenosis. The patients were divided into four groups with respect to the carotid artery stenosis as: Group I (<50% stenosis), Group II (50-70% stenosis), Group III (70-90% stenosis), and Group IV (90-99% stenosis). Results Platelet/lymphocyte ratio, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and mean platelet volume were found higher in Group IV (patients with severe carotid artery stenosis) (p < 0.01) and were positively correlated with the degree of stenosis (p < 0.01). Platelet/lymphocyte ratio is an independent predictor for post operative stroke (p = 0.047) at multivariate analysis. A threshold level of 145.304 of platelet/lymphocyte ratio combined with a sensitivity 83.3% and specificity 73.8% (95% CI, 0.802-0.921, area under the curve = 0.862 +/- 0.03; p = 0.002) for the identification of post operative stroke. Conclusions This retrospective study suggests that platelet/lymphocyte ratio in the blood which was taken preoperatively could be considered as an additional, easy, and inexpensive method to predict a possible higher incidence of postoperative stroke after carotid endarterectomy.