Lymphocyte count and NLR as predictive value for the severity of acute cholangitis

Acute cholangitis is a serious infectious condition in which systemic complications occur and can lead to mortality. In this study, we tried to elucidate the relationship between lymphocyte count and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) with disease severity in patients with acute cholangitis.

In this retrospective analysis, 633 patients who met the definitive diagnosis criteria for acute cholangitis were enrolled as the study group. In the same period, 155 patients without acute cholangitis who had normal inflammatory markers and underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) were included in the study as the control group. The lymphocyte count, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) of the acute cholangitis group, the control group, and the acute cholangitis group were compared according to the severity of cholangitis.

There was a statistically significant correlation between the severity of cholangitis and the degree of lymphocytopenia (p<0.05). It was observed that as the disease severity increased, the proportion of patients with normal lymphocytopenia degree decreased, and abnormal findings increased. It was seen that the NLR and PLR results of the patients increased as the severity of cholangitis increased.

As a result, one can conclude that the increase in the severity of cholangitis caused an increase in NLR and PLR and a decrease in lymphocytes. Although the increase in NLR and lymphocytopenia results were considered statistically significant, the increase in PLR was not at an acceptable level.