Serum peripheral markers for inflammation in adolescents with anorexia nervosa

There is a limited number of studies comparing the levels of inflammation in adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and healthy controls based on complete blood count and platelet parameters.

This study is a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of 53 drug-naive patients with AN and 53 healthy controls.

Significant differences were observed for WBC (white blood cell), neutrophil, MCV (mean corpuscular volume), MCH (mean corpuscular haemoglobin) and neutrophils/lymphocytes ratio (NLR) between the study groups. Patients with AN had lower WBC, neutrophiles and NLR values. But there was no difference between the groups in terms of inflammation-related platelet parameters. A strong positive correlation between BMI (body mass index) and PLT (platelet), PCT (plateletcrit) was determined in the patient group (r = 0.454, p = 0.001; r = 0.386, p = 0.007). Inflammation-related parameters may increase as BMI increases with nutrition and weight restoration.

The present study provides further evidence for level of inflammation in these patients does not increase during the acute period, unlike other mental diseases.