Is Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio a Useful Biomarker in Predicting Fibrosis in Chronic Hepatitis C Infection?

Percutaneous liver biopsy is the gold standard in the evaluation of liver fibrosis in the chronic hepatitis C infection (HCV). Invasive biopsy leads to complication risks and high financial burden for each patient. Therefore, noninvasive methods are needed including neutrophil lymphocyte (NLR) ratio, thrombocyte lymphocyte ratio (PLR). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of NLR and PLR as a biomarker on the prediction of response status and fibrosis degrees of patients with HCV. Material and Methods: We enrolled 184 chronic HCV in patients this retrospective study. The NLR and PLR of the patients were calculated using the hemogram data in the hospital registry system. The patients were evaluated in two groups according to their antiviral treatment response, with sustained viral response (SVR) and no response (Non- SVR). Results: It has been shown that SVR in HCV infection decreases with increasing age (p = 0.04). NLR was associated with the degree of fibrosis (p=0.02) while PLR was not significant (p=0.21). On the contrary, there was no significant relationship between NLR, PLR and treatment response status. Conclusions: This study conducted in the Turkish population is the first study to reveal the relationship between response and fibrosis with NLR and PLR in chronic HCV infection using the largest sample size. Low NLR value can be used as a biomarker to predict advanced fibrosis due to chronic HCV.

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