Association between the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and prehypertension

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To explore the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with prehypertension (PHT). BACKGROUND: Inflammation plays an important role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. A pathophysiological link also exists between inflammation and PHT. NLR is a simple marker for the assessment of inflammatory status. There is a lack of data regarding the association between NLR and pre-hypertensive state. METHODS: The present cross-sectional study included 33 newly diagnosed PHT patients and 35 normotensive control subjects. Prehypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure (BP) of 120-139 mm Hg and/or a diastolic BP of 80-89 mm Hg. RESULTS: Patients were divided into tertiles based on NLR values: 1.17 (0.9-1.42) in tertile 1; 1.57 (1.43-1.78) in tertile 2; and 2.40 (1.82-4.5) in tertile 3. The frequency of PHT was significantly higher for patients in the upper NLR tertile compared to the middle and lower NLR tertiles (21 (91.3 %), 7 (30.4 %), and 5 (22.7 %), respectively; p < 0.001). Systolic BP and diastolic BP were significantly higher among patients in the upper NLR tertile than among those in the other NLR tertiles. CONCLUSION: An association exists between PHT and NLR. NLR measurement, as well as monocyte count, may be used to indicate increased risk of prehypertension (Tab. 2, Ref. 48).