Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio as noninvasive predictor of pulmonary vascular resistance increase in congestive heart failure patients: Single-center preliminary report.

BACKGROUND

Nowadays, heart failure (HF) is a significant health problem due to steady increase in diagnosis, unpredictable acute decompensations and high mortality rate. Early risk stratifications of clinical deterioration are essential in preventing life-threatening events and ensuring proper patients management. Increased neutrophil to lymphocytes ratio (NTLR) above 6 is associated with the risk of re-hospitalizations and increased mortality.

OBJECTIVES

To compare NTLR and clinical, laboratory and hemodynamic results obtained from patients re-hospitalized within six-month intervals due to HF decompensation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We evaluated 41 patients (n = 36 males (87%) and n = 5 females (13%), mean age 50 ±10 years) admitted to our hospital at least twice within six-month interval due to decompensation of chronic heart failure (CHF) between 2017 and 2019. All patients were divided into 2 groups depending on the NTLR values.

RESULTS

There was no death in presented group during the observational time. We observed a significant difference in cardiac index (CI) - 2.4 ±0.5 compared to 2.6 ±0.6 L/m2/min - between the 1st and 2nd admission (p = 0.0356). The right ventricle systolic pressure (RVSP) results related to NTLR level revealed significant difference (43 ±14 mm Hg compared to 59 ±21 mm Hg, p = 0.0438). We observed a significant increase of pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) values (175 ±106 compared to 438 ±300 dyn*s*cm-5, p = 0.0386) in patients with NTLR above 6.

CONCLUSIONS

Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio may be an easy and suitable tool for monitoring of the HF progression. According to our study, the ratio correlates with PVR and RVSP increase.