Investigation of Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte Ratio as a Biomarker to Evaluate Systemic Inflammation in Clinical Otosclerosis

Abstract

Introduction:Otosclerosis with yet unexplained etiopathogenesis, especially for inflammatory mechanism, affects otic capsule of ear and causes progressive hearing loss. We aimed to investigate whether there is systemic inflammation in patients with otosclerosis by measuring neutrophil-tolymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a biomarker.Methods:This retrospective study included 98 patients which were divided into 2 groups as clinical otosclerosis and control group. The otosclerosis group consisted of 49 patients who stapes fixation was confirmed during operation based on operative notes and underwent surgery for otosclerosis from January of 2015 to November of 2018. The control group consisted of 49 age and sex-matched subjects who were scheduled for septoplasty or septorhinoplasty, who did not have any otologic complaints, and who had normal otologic examination. In both group of the patients white blood cell count (WBC), neutrophil and lymphocyte counts, and other laboratory data were recorded; and NLR values were calculated from their pre-op complete blood cell count differentials. Age, gender, WBC, neutrophil, lymphocyte, and NLR values were compared between the groups to evaluate any correlations in between.Results:For the mean NLR, there was not a statistically significant difference between the groups (p=0.143). WBC comparison of the groups showed no statistically significance (p=0.315). For average neutrophil and lymphocyte counts, there were not a statistically significant difference between the groups; (p=0.757) and (p=0.071), respectively.Conclusion:Although NLR is related to the prognosis and severity of several diseases, we found no association with clinical otosclerosis in this study. The reasons of insignificant results are thought to be that otosclerosis does not cause a systemic inflammation at all or the patients were in the inactive period of the disease.

Keywords

• otosclerosis
• systemic inflammation
• biomarker
• neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio