Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio among Acute Ischaemic Stroke Patients

Abstract

Introduction: Finding potential prognostic indicators for Acute Ischaemic Stroke (AIS) may help to increase the accuracy with which outcomes can be predicted, and implementing early therapies may help to improve the prognosis as well. Recently, Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) was shown to predict short-term outcome in patients with AIS. Aim: To determine whether NLR is useful in detecting length of stay, complications in the hospital and three months outcome of a patient admitted with AIS. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective cohort clinical study that was conducted in the Department of General Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, a tertiary care hospital, Pillaiyarkuppam, Pondicherry, where 62 AIS patients were enrolled between December 2019 – May 2021. All the routine blood investigations and NLR was calculated during admission and on day 5, The patients were followed-up for the next 3 months. During the course of their stay in the hospital, patients were assessed daily using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Results: The mean age of the study population was 67.48±11.29 years, with 37 (59.68%) males and 25 (40.32%) females. The mean NLR on day 1 and day 5 were 5.42±2.85 and 3.51±1.97, respectively. There was a positive correlation between NLR and length of hospital stay (r=0.9661; p8, were observed to have complications such as aspiration pneumonia 3 (33%), seizures 2 (22%), and urinary tract infection 1 (11%). Conclusion: NLR is useful marker in detecting length of stay, complications in the hospital and three months outcome of a patient admitted with AIS.

Keywords

• inflammation
• national institutes of health stroke scale (nihss)
• prognosis
• stroke