Evaluation of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in predicting bloodstream infection

Aim: The prognostic role of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in bloodstream infection (BSI) deserves further investigation. Patients & methods: The NLR values were measured and compared in BSI patients and healthy controls. The receiver operating characteristic of NLR and cut-off values were measured in BSI patients and subgroups. Results: We have measured the NLR of study group with 2160 BSI patients and normal group with 2523 healthy controls, which was significantly high in study group (11.36 ± 21.38 vs 2.53 ± 0.86; p < 0.001) and the area under the curve was 0.834 (95% CI: 0.825-0.842; p < 0.001). The critical value of NLR for diagnosis of BSI was 3.09, with a sensitivity of 75.3%, and a specificity of 93.6%. Conclusion: NLR is an effective diagnostic indicator of including BSIs of Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria and fungus.