Analysis of Correlation between Blood Inflammation Indicators in Peripheral Blood and Prognosis of Patients with...

This study aimed to investigate the value of the peripheral blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) in the prognosis of patients with multiple myeloma (MM).

Before treatment, the NLR and LMR and all clinical indicators of 168 patients, diagnosed with MM at the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from April 2013 to April 2022, were retrospectively analyzed, and the patients were grouped according to their median NLR counts and median LMR counts. Differences between the groups were compared by using the chi-squared (χ²) test, the Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Log-rank test were used for survival analysis and difference comparison, and the COX proportional risk model was constructed to analyze the factors affecting the prognosis of the MM patients. The test level was α = 0.05.

The groups were divided into high NLR group (> 2.19) and low NLR group (≤ 2.19) and high LMR group (> 3.45) and low LMR group (≤ 3.45), according to the median NLR and LMR values. The clinical stage, blood β2 microglobulin, and serum creatinine levels in the high NLR group were higher than in the low NLR group, and the differences between the groups were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The clinical stage and blood β2 microglobulin in the low LMR group were higher than in the high LMR group, and the differences between the groups were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The Cox univariate and multivariate analyses showed that peripheral blood NLR < 2.19 and LMR ≤ 3.45 were independent risk factors for the prognosis in patients with MM (p < 0.05).

High NLR and low LMR counts of peripheral blood suggest a poor prognosis; NLR and LMR may be prognostic indicators in MM patients.