The association of allergic rhinitis severity with neutrophil-lymphocyte and platelet-lymphocyte ratio in children

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the severity of allergic rhinitis (AR) and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in pediatric patients.

Methods: This study is a retrospective, cross-sectional, and observational study including 200 AR patients and 160 healthy controls. Of the patients, 39% were boys with a mean age of 10.5 years. The study included children with persistent and intermittent AR. Of the controls, 50.6% were boys with a mean age of 10.3 years. We compared NLR and PLR from blood test between study and control groups. They were also compared according to AR severity within the patient group.

Results: The NLR was 1.64±1.29 in the study group whereas 1.18±0.31 in the control group. The PLR was 102.72±31.20 in the study group whereas 79.36±11.72 in the control group. When NLR and PLR were compared between groups, we found statistically significant differences in both NLR and PLR (p=0.003, p=0.001, respectively). We found a statistically significant difference when comparing both NLR and PLR in patients with intermittent and persistent AR. These rates increased with disease severity (p=0.000, p=0.000, respectively).

Conclusion: Both NLR and PLR are useful markers for the diagnosis and severity of AR. Clinicians can use these markers to assess disease severity in pediatric patients at the beginning of the diagnostic process.