Association of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio with lower patency rates among patients with infrapopliteal arterial disease undergoing balloon angioplasty

Abstract

Introduction: Percutaneous endovascular methods have emerged to the contemporary revascularization choice in patients with infrapopliteal (IP) arterial disease. However, restenosis remains to be the Achilles' heel of this minimally invasive revascularization techniques. We aimed to analyze the association between preprocedural (neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio) Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and subsequent patency in a cohort of patients with symptomatic IP disease undergoing balloon angioplasty. Methods: All patients primarily treated with angioplasty of at least one IP artery causing severe symptoms or critical limb ischemia (CLI) (Rutherford category 1–6) between January 2014 and August 2015 were analyzed. The baseline demographic, clinical, and angiographic features admission laboratory test results were obtained from hospital files and computer records. NLR was calculated as the preprocedural ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes. Results: The study population involved 42 (43.8%) CLI patients and 52 (54.2%) claudicants. The most frequent target vessel was the posterior tibial artery. Primary patency at 1 month was 81.9% and 62.7% at 6 months. NLR (odds ratio: 0.04, P = 0.03) independently predicted patency at 1 month but did not have a role on arterial patency after 1 month. Only smoking (odds ratio: 4.8, P = 0.01) associated with patency at 6 months. Conclusion: Preprocedural NLR was an independent risk factor for IP arterial patency at short-term. It may be used as a risk factor for subsequent amputation or recurrent interventions.

Keywords

• Critical limb ischemia
• infrapopliteal
• neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio
• patency
• percutaneous transluminal angioplasty