Association of Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio and Glycaemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Introduction: Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) is an easily measurable novel marker of systemic inflammation and is related to cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Glycated haemoglobin A (HbA1c) levels are an indicator of blood glucose regulation. However, HbA1c usually do not predict diabetes associated complications accurately. Aim: To measure NLR and HbA1c values and to determine their association in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials and Methods: This observational analytical study was conducted in a tertiary care center. Data was collected over a period of six months from June 2020 to December 2020. Hundred random patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus according to American Diabetes Association (ADA) criteria were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups, Group A with HbA1c ≤7 (regulated diabetes) & Group B with >7 HbA1c (unregulated diabetes). Results: Using Independent t-test, the NLR ratios were found to be significantly higher in Group B when compared to Group A (2.41±0.11 verses 1.31±0.57, respectively). Mean HbA1c (%) levels were 6.67±0.14 and 8.79±0.21 in Groups A and B, respectively. Linear regression analysis showed that NLR correlated positively with HbA1c with a p-value <0.001. Conclusion: NLR is an easily available, safe, cost-effective and simple test. It can also guide the physician in resource limited settings like Primary Health Centres (PHC) to evaluate a patient with type 2 diabetes for microvascular and macrovascular complications. So, it can be used as a disease monitoring tool during the follow up of diabetics.

Keywords

• glycated haemoglobin a
• microvascular
• macrovascular
• unregulated diabetes