Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio Is Not Associated with Severity of Coronary Artery Disease and Is Not Correlated with Vitamin D Level in Patients with a History of an Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Abstract

Simple SummaryCoronary artery disease (CAD), the leading cause of death worldwide, is caused by atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis has an inflammatory component, which can be measured with the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR). Vitamin D has anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic properties that affect many mechanisms involved in CAD. In this study, we investigated the association between NLR, vitamin D levels, and the severity of CAD in a group of patients who had a myocardial infarction (MI) in the past. Our results show that patients with acute coronary syndrome had a higher NLR compared to those with stable CAD. No associations were observed between NLR and the severity of CAD. We found no correlation between vitamin D levels and NLR. NLR could be used as a prognostic marker of consecutive MI in patients with CAD and previous MI.Coronary artery disease (CAD), the leading cause of death worldwide, has an underlying cause in atherosclerosis. The activity of this inflammatory process can be measured with neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR). The anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic properties of vitamin D affect many mechanisms involved in CAD. In this study, we investigated the association between NLR, vitamin D concentration, and severity of CAD in a group of patients with a history of myocardial infarction (MI). NLR was higher in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in comparison to those with stable CAD (median: 2.8, range: 0.96–24.3 vs. median: 2.3, range: 0.03–31.6; p < 0.05). No associations between NLR and severity of CAD (p = 0.14) in the cohort and in the subgroups with stable CAD (p = 0.40) and ACS (p = 0.34) were observed. We found no correlation between vitamin D level and NLR neither in the whole study group (p = 0.29) nor in subgroups of patients with stable CAD (p = 0.84) and ACS (p = 0.30). NLR could be used as prognostic biomarker of consecutive MI in patients with CAD and a history of MI.