The evaluation of relationship between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and slow

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate thecorrelations between leukocyte counts, the neutrophil-tolymphocyteratio (NLR), and slow coronary flow (SCF).Methods: We evaluated 135 patients undergoing coronaryangiography (CAG) within coronary artery disease(CAD) indication. We divided patients into three groupsaccording to the CAG findings. Group 1 consisted of 45patients with an SCF pattern; group 2 consisted of 45 patientswith at least 50% lumen narrowing in at least oneepicardial coronary artery; and group 3 (control group)consisted of 45 patients with normal coronary arteries.The quantification of the coronary flow was assessed usingthe thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) framecount method for each of the coronary arteries. Bloodsamples were collected from the patients after a 12 hovernight fasting. The NLR ratio was calculated from theautomated complete blood count.Results: NLR in CAD was higher than in both the SCFand control groups (p=0.008, p<0.001, respectively).However, there was no statistically significant differencebetween SCF and control group (p=0.768). Neutrophilcounts in CAD were higher than in both SCF and controlgroups, but only the difference between CAD and SCFgroups was statistically significant (p=0.010).Conclusion: Our study revealed that circulating neutrophilcounts and NLR were related to the coronary arterydisease, as expected.Key words: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, leukocyte subtype, slow coronary flow, coronary artery diseas