Evaluation of monocyte to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and other inflammatory markers in hidradenitis suppurativa: a case-control study

Abstract

Aims: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is an inflammatory disease whose pathophysiology is not yet clearly known, but inflammatory parameters have been used for many years in the diagnosis and follow-up. The aim of this study is to evaluate NLR, PLR, MHR, and hemogram parameters in patients diagnosed with HS without comorbidities and compare them with healthy controls.
 Methods: This study include 105 HS patients and 100 healthy volunteers. The medical records and laboratory findings of the participants were reviewed retrospectively. Patients and control group neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, platelets, mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), red cell distribution width coefficient of variation (RDW-CV), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), C-reactive protein (CRP), Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and MHR were compared.
 Results: A total of 105 patients [43 (41%) women and 62 (59%) men] and one hundred healthy volunteers [52 (52%) women and 48 (48%) men] participated in the study. The mean of neutrophil count (patient group=5.84±2.27, control group=4.29±1.81, p=0.001), lymphocyte count (patient group=2.78±0.90, control group=2.31±0.63, p=0.001), monocyte count (patient group=0.74±0.39, control group=0.55±0.16, p=0.001), platelet count (patient group=295.63±65.84, control group=274.45±59.06, p=0.007), CRP (patient group=12.71±24.38, control group=2.61±2.21, p=0.039), and MHR (patient group=0.0203±0.0135, control group=0.0114±0.0056, p=0.001) were higher in the patient whereas the mean of HDL-C (patient group=39.02±11.06, control group=52.85±16.46, p=0.001) and PLR (patient group=118.82±60.82, control group=126.07±39.13, p=0.028) were significantly higher in control individuals. The adjusted effect of MHR, NLR, and PLR was re-examined to eliminate the effect that may arise from the difference in age between patients and controls. It was observed that when MHR increased by 0.01 unit, the risk of disease increased significantly by 4.07 times. When NLR increases by 1 unit, the disease increased. significantly by 1.37 times. Both adjusted and unadjusted effects of MHR were significant. When the sensitivity and specificity of MHR, and NLR in differentiating patients were examined, the sensitivity of MHR was found to be 67.4% and its specificity was 72.5% (p=0.001), while the sensitivity of NLR was found to be 61.5% and its specificity was 74.0% ( p=0.038). 
 Conclusions: Our study showed that MHR was more effective in distinguishing HS patients than other inflammatory markers. MHR can be used as a new marker to investigate the inflammatory effect of HS.