The relationship between inflammatory marker levels and pulmonary tuberculosis severity

We aimed to investigate the correlation between red cell distribution width (RDW), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and other inflammatory markers with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) severity. Seventy patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis were compared with 50 age-matched and gender-matched healthy controls. The mean age of PTB patients was 50.4 ± 21.8 years. There were no differences in terms of age, gender, and smoking history between PTB patients and controls. Patients with advanced PTB had a significantly higher white blood cell count, neutrophil count, RDW, NLR, and C-reactive protein when compared to patients with mild to moderate PTB. RDW (17.7 versus 15.7 %, p=0.002) and NLR (4.7 versus 3.1, p=0.009) values were higher in patients with advanced PTB as opposed to patients with mild to moderate PTB. NLR and RDW levels may be used as markers of inflammation to help clinically manage patients with TB and to determine disease severity.