Utility of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio plus C-reactive protein for infection in systemic lupus erythematosus

Lupus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
B E Broca-Garcia ◽  
M A Saavedra ◽  
M A Martínez-Bencomo ◽  
D H Montes-Cortes ◽  
L J Jara ◽  
...  

Distinction between infection and flare in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a challenge in clinical practice. Objective To analyze the utility of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) plus C-reactive protein (CRP) to differentiate between infection and active disease in patients with SLE. Methods A cross-sectional study of a cohort of patients with SLE was carried out. Blood samples from four groups (patients without infection or active disease, patients with infection, patients with active disease, and patients with both infection and active disease) before therapeutic interventions were analyzed. We excluded patients with current malignancy, pregnancy, ischemic heart disease or use of antimicrobials during previous 7 days. Hematological cell count, CRP and cultures were obtained. We constructed receiver operating characteristic curves; sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated. Results Forty patients were included. NLR cut-off ≥6.3 had sensitivity 70%, specificity 85%, PPV 83% and NPV 74% to detect patients with non-viral infections. A CRP cut-off ≥7.5 mg/L had sensitivity 90%, specificity 75%, PPV 78% and NPV 88% to detect infections regardless of SLE activity. Combination of CRP plus NLR improves the specificity to 90% and PPV to 88%. Excluding the group with both infection and active disease, CRP plus NLR expands specificity to 95% and NPV to 90%. Conclusion In our experience, levels of CRP, particularly CRP plus NLR, were useful in differentiating patients with SLE from those with suspected non-viral infection regardless of the activity of the disease.

Lupus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 1566-1570
Author(s):  
Akhmad Syaikhu Firizal ◽  
Adhi Kristianto Sugianli ◽  
Laniyati Hamijoyo

Aim We aimed to measure sensitivity, specificity, and to determine the cut-off value (COV) ratio of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NLR) in patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods A cross sectional study was conducted using the retrospective data from Hasan Sadikin Lupus Registry (HSLR). The inclusion criteria were SLE patients aged 18 years or older who had documented data of neutrophil, lymphocyte, and SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI). Patients with infections, malignancies, and other inflammatory diseases recorded in registry were excluded. SLEDAI with a score of ≤ 4 is considered inactive and score of > 4 is considered active. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio was calculated by dividing the absolute number of neutrophils by the absoulte number of lymphocytes. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze and determine optimal COV of NLR. Results The total sample in this study were 112 subjects with a dominant of female (95.54%) and the mean age of 34.45 ± 9.40 years. The median of SLEDAI was 4.5 with a range from 0 to 16, while the median of NLR was 2.68 with a range of 0.59 to 19.02. The ROC analysis showed the optimal cut-off in this study was 2.94 with sensitivity and specificity as high as 60.71% and 76.79%, respectively. Conclusion Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio with cut off value of 2.94 can be used to determine active disease of systemic lupus eythematousus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 636.1-636
Author(s):  
Y. Santamaria-Alza ◽  
J. Sanchez-Bautista ◽  
T. Urrego Callejas ◽  
J. Moreno ◽  
F. Jaimes ◽  
...  

Background:The most common complication in patients with SLE is infection, and its clinical presentation is often indistinguishable from SLE flares. Therefore, laboratory ratios have been evaluated to differentiate between those events. Among them, ESR/CRP1, neutrophil/lymphocyte (NLR)2, and platelet/lymphocyte (PLR)3 ratios have been previously assessed with acceptable performance; however, there is no validation of those ratios in our SLE population.Objectives:To examine the predictive capacity of infection of the lymphocyte/C4 (LC4R), lymphocyte/C3 (LC3R), and ferritin/ESR (FER) ratios in SLE patients, and to evaluate the performance of ESR/CRP, NLR, AND PLR ratios in our SLE population.Methods:We conducted a cross-sectional study of SLE patients admitted to the emergency service at Hospital San Vicente Fundación (HSVF). The HSVF ethics committee approved the execution of the project.Patients were categorized into four groups according to the main cause of hospitalization: (1) infection, (2) flare, (3) infection and flare and, (4) neither infection nor flare.We calculated the median values of the ratios and their respective interquartile ranges for each group. Then, we compared those summary measures using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Subsequently, we assessed the predictive capacity of infection of each ratio using ROC curve. Finally, we carried out a logistic regression model.Results:A total of 246 patients were included, among them 90.7% were women. The median age was 28 years (IQR: 20-35 years). Regarding the outcomes, 37.0% of the patients had flares, 30.9% had neither infection nor flare, 16.7% had an infection and, 15.5% had simultaneously infection and flare. When compared the four groups, statistical significance (p<0.05) was observed. Area under the ROC curve (AUC) for infection prediction was as follows: 0.752 (sensitivity 60.5%, specificity 80.5%) for LC4R, 0.740 (sensitivity 73.2%, specificity 68.3%) for FER, 0.731 (sensitivity 77.6%, specificity 80.5%) for LC3R.In the logistic regression modeling, we observed that an increase in the risk of infection was associated with an LC4R below 66.7 (OR: 6.3, CI: 2.7 – 14.3, p <0.0001), a FER greater than 13.6 (OR: 5.9, CI: 2.8 – 12.1, p <0.0001) and an LC3R below 11.2 (OR: 4.9, CI: 2.4 – 9.8, p <0.0001).The ESR/CRP and PLR performed poorly with an AUC of 0.580 and 0.655, respectively. In contrast, the NLR showed better performance (AUC of 0.709, with a sensitivity of 80.2% and specificity of 55.7%).Figure 1.ROC curves of the evaluated ratiosConclusion:These laboratory ratios could be easy to assay and inexpensive biomarkers to differentiate between infection and activity in SLE patients. The LC4R, FER, and LC3R have a significant diagnostic performance for detecting infection among SLE patients. Of the ratios previously evaluated, ESR/CRP, LPR, NLR, only the latest has an adequate performance in our population.References:[1]Littlejohn E, Marder W, Lewis E, et al. The ratio of erythrocyte sedimentation rate to C-reactive protein is useful in distinguishing infection from flare in systemic lupus erythematosus patients presenting with fever. Lupus. 2018;27(7):1123-1129.[2]Broca-Garcia BE, Saavedra MA, Martínez-Bencomo MA, et al. Utility of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio plus C-reactive protein for infection in systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus. 2019;28(2):217-222.[3]Soliman WM, Sherif NM, Ghanima IM, EL-Badawy MA. Neutrophil to lymphocyte and platelet to lymphocyte ratios in systemic lupus erythematosus: Relation with disease activity and lupus nephritis. Reumatol Clin. 2020;16(4):255-261s.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
HYOUN-AH KIM ◽  
JA-YOUNG JEON ◽  
JEONG-MI AN ◽  
BO-RAM KOH ◽  
CHANG-HEE SUH

Objective.C-reactive protein (CRP), S100A8/A9, and procalcitonin have been suggested as markers of infection in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We investigated the clinical significance of these factors for indication of infection in SLE.Methods.Blood samples were prospectively collected from 34 patients with SLE who had bacterial infections and 39 patients with SLE who had disease flares and no evidence of infection. A second set of serum samples was collected after the infections or flares were resolved.Results.CRP levels of SLE patients with infections were higher than those with flares [5.9 mg/dl (IQR 2.42, 10.53) vs 0.06 mg/dl (IQR 0.03, 0.15), p < 0.001] and decreased after the infection was resolved. S100A8/A9 and procalcitonin levels of SLE patients with infection were also higher [4.69 μg/ml (IQR 2.25, 12.07) vs 1.07 (IQR 0.49, 3.05) (p < 0.001) and 0 ng/ml (IQR 0–0.38) vs 0 (0–0) (p < 0.001), respectively]; these levels were also reduced once the infection disappeared. In the receiver-operating characteristics analysis of CRP, S100A8/A9, and procalcitonin, the area under the curve was 0.966 (95% CI 0.925–1.007), 0.732 (95% CI 0.61–0.854), and 0.667 (95% CI 0.534–0.799), respectively. CRP indicated the presence of an infection with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 90%, with a cutoff value of 1.35 mg/dl.Conclusion.Our data suggest that CRP is the most sensitive and specific marker for diagnosing bacterial infections in SLE.


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