Evaluation of the hematologic indices in patients with thyrotoxicosis with distinct etiologies: a case-control study

Abstract

Aim: Thyrotoxicosis is a clinical state of inappropriately high levels of free T4 (thyroxine) and/or free T3 (tri-iodothyronine) in the body caused by distinct etiologies including Graves’ disease (GD), subacute thyroiditis (SAT), toxic adenoma and toxic multinodular goiter (TMNG). Simple hematologic indices such as neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and mean platelet volume (MPV) have increasingly been mentioned as measures of presence and severity of thyrotoxicosis. In this study, we aimed to analyze whether there is a link between these peripheral blood parameters and the presence of thyrotoxicosis.
 Material and Methods: A total of 46 GD, 46 TMNG, 39 TA and 45 SAT patients and 45 control subjects were studied. Laboratory parameters in all patients were recorded and NLR, PLR and MPV values were recorded from peripheral blood complete blood cell counts. 
 Results: This study showed that NLR and PLR levels are elevated in patients with SAT in comparison with other thyrotoxic patient groups and controls. The post hoc analysis of comparison of NLR and PLR in each study groups revealed that NLR and PLR were statistically different in the SAT group in comparison to the GD, TMNG, TA, and healthy controls. A significant decrease in the level of MPV was demonstrated in thyrotoxicosis patients (p