The Prognostic Value of Circulating Inflammatory Cell Counts in Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss and the Effect of...

Recent studies suggest that elevated neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are poor prognostic factors in sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL). We aimed to investigate the accuracy of this hypothesis by taking into account the effect of cardiovascular risk (CVR) factors.

Medical records of 122 patients with SSNHL were reviewed retrospectively and grouped into 2 as; patients without CVR (group 1; n = 68) and patients having CVR (group 2; n = 54). Moreover, 60 control cases who did not have SSNHL were also included and grouped into 2 as; group 3 (n = 30) with CVR and group 4 (n = 30) healthy controls without having SSNHL or CVRs. Neutrophil (N), lymphocyte (L), platelet (Plt), NLR, and PLR between the groups and their relationship with the severity of hearing loss, recovery rates, and audiogram configurations were analyzed.

The highest N and NLR values were in group 1 and were significantly higher than the values of group 4 (P < .05, P < .01). There was no significant relationship between the groups in terms of L, Plt, or PLR values. The highest NLR and PLR values were determined in SSNHL patients with mild hearing loss, complete recovery, and up-sloping audiogram configuration (P > .05).

Elevated levels of N and NLR may be considered as strong laboratory findings showing an inflammatory response in the diagnosis of SSNHL, but the presence of CVR factors does not seem to increase the inflammatory response in SSNHL as expected. In patients with SSNHL, NLR and PLR elevation may indicate better prognosis.