Novel Mortality Markers for Critically Ill Patients

Area of Science:

• Critical Care Medicine
• Hematology
• Biomarkers

Background:

• Inflammatory markers like neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are gaining attention as indicators of disease severity.
• These ratios are derived from complete blood counts, making them readily accessible in clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of NLR and PLR in predicting hospital stay duration and mortality among intensive care unit (ICU) patients.
• To determine the clinical utility of these hematological ratios as prognostic tools in critical care.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of patient data from an institutional ICU between October 2016 and August 2017.
• Patients were categorized into two groups: survivors and deceased, based on their outcomes.
• NLR and PLR values were calculated from complete blood counts for each patient.

Main Results:

• Deceased patients exhibited significantly higher NLR (median 10.42) compared to survivors (median 2.06) (P < .001).
• Similarly, the median PLR was significantly elevated in the deceased group (268.9) versus the survivor group (55.7) (P < .001).
• Both NLR and PLR demonstrated statistically significant differences between survivor and deceased patient cohorts.

Conclusions:

• NLR and PLR are valuable and inexpensive biomarkers for predicting mortality in critically ill ICU patients.
• Elevations in NLR and PLR should be recognized by physicians as potential indicators of increased mortality risk.
• These markers, alongside C-reactive protein, offer prognostic insights in critical care settings.