Clinical ability of neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio in pregnancy as a predictor of preeclampsia

Abstract

Aim and objective: Preeclampsia is part of the hypertension spectrum that occurs during the pregnancy period, especially when the gestational age is 20 weeks or more. Preeclampsia has a broad impact not only on pregnant women but also on the fetus they contain. It is said that in preeclampsia, there is an increase in inflammatory stimulation and an abnormal immune response so that routine blood values increase. Neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) values reported in several studies have risen notably in the incidence of preeclampsia. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional observational analysis study was conducted on 924 pregnant respondents from January to December 2019 at Cimacan District Hospital, Cianjur. Statistical analysis test of the average difference between the two groups and the prediction test of NLR values was conducted between the healthy pregnant women group of 838 respondents and the group of 86 pregnant women with preeclampsia. Results: In statistical tests regarding the differences in the mean of the two groups, a significant NLR value was obtained (p = 0.004). Then the NLR value was tested again by the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve method, and the results of the area under the curve (AUC) on the variable values were obtained in the form of AUC: 0.595/p-value: 0.035. Conclusion and clinical significance: Despite the differences in the mean NLR in the two groups, however, the NLR of women in predicting the incidence of pregnancy with preeclampsia is very low.