Detection of peripheral blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in patients with atrial fibrillation and its clinical significance

Abstract

Objective To observe the change of inflammatory biomarkers peripheral blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio level, and thus to investigate the relationship between neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and atrial fibrillation, and the clinical significance of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio for atrial fibrillation. Methods A total of 150 patients with atrial fibrillation hospitalizd from January 2013 to December 2015 were selected, including 68 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group) and 82 patients with persistent atrial fibrillation (persistent atrial fibrillation goup); at the same time, 69 patients with sinus rhythm without history of atrial fibrillation hospitalized were selected as the control group. The clinical data were collected, the differences of clinical features, echocardiographic indexes and peripheral blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio among the three groups were compared, and the factors influencing the occurrence of atrial fibrillation were analyzed. Results There was significant difference among the three groups in age, history of hypertension, history of coronary heart disease (P<0.05). left atrial diameter of Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group[41.00(38.00-43.00)] was higher than that of the control group [38.00(36.00-40.00), P<0.05]; the left atrial diameter of persistent atrial fibrillation group(48.56±6.85) was higher than that of the paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group (P<0.01). The left ventricular ejection fraction of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group [0.57 (0.54-0.59)]was lower than that of the control group [0.58 (0.57-0.59), P<0.01]; the left ventricular ejection fraction of persistent atrial fibrillation group [0.55 (0.52-0.57)] was lower than that the paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group (P<0.01). Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group(2.13±0.78)increased, compared with the control group (1.75±0.65, P<0.01); neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in persistent atrial fibrillation group(1.84-3.63) increased, compared with the paroxysmal atrial fibrillation group (P<0.01). Multi factor Logistic regression analysis showed that neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio was an independent risk factor for atrial fibrillation(odds ratio: 2.349, 95% confidence intervale: 1.415-3.901, P=0.001). Conclusions Peripheral blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio level increass in patients with atrial fibrillation. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio is an independent risk factor for atrial fibrillation. Key words: Atrial fibrillation; Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio; Inflammation; Independent risk factor