Does inflammation play a role in the pathophysiology of tinnitus?

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the potential of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and mean platelet volume (MPV) as prognostic markers in tinnitus patients at inflammatory process. This study consisted of 216 subjects (124 males and 92 females), Routine laboratory CBC test results were calculated in this study. All the patients were divided into three groups according to their hearing thresholds: a high frequency hearing loss-tinnitus group (HFHL-TN) consisted of 55 subjects, an hearing loss in all frequencies tinnitus group (AFHL-TN) consisted of 53 subjects and a normal hearing-tinnitus group (NH-TN) consisted of 51 subjects. The control group (CNT) included 57 age-and sex-matched healthy subjects. NLR, PLR and MPV were observed in the HFHL-TN group when compared to AFHL-TN, NH-TN and CNT group (P < 0.001). An increase in NLR was observed in the AFHL-TN group compared with the CNT group (P = 0.004). The PLR value of the HFHL-TN group was significantly higher than that of the AFHL-TN (P = 0.028) and NH-TN,CNTgroup (P < 0001). The PLR value of the HFHL-TN group was significantly higher than that of the AFHL-TN (p=0.028) and NH-TN, CNT group (P < 0001). MPV values in HFHL-TN group was slightly higher AFHL-TN group and significantly higher than NH-TN (P = 0.025) and CNT (P < 0.001) group. Our results confirm that elevated NLR, PLR and MPV values has been suggested to be a useful inflammatuar prognostic biomarker of tinnitus patients.