Clinical significance of the lipid profile, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in different rheumatic disease patients

Objectives. To assess the lipid profile, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio(NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio(PLR) in different rheumatic diseases and to study their relation to disease activity and/or severity. Patients and methods. 257 patients (47 rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 100 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 49 systemic sclerosis (SSc), 33 axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) and 28 vasculitis (21with primary vasculitis and 7 with Behçet’s disease ‘BD’) and 70 controls were recruited. The disease activity and/or severity were assessed for each disease. The lipid profile was measured including: total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL),triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very-low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and the LDL:HDL was calculated. The NLR and PLR were recorded. Results. In RA, NLR, PLR and HDL were significantly higher (p