Abstract
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic, progressive respiratory disease and the third leading cause of respiratory disease mortality. The diagnosis of COPD is changed to acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) when respiratory symptoms become worse, beyond normal day-to-day variations and severely enough that changes in medication are required. Both neutrophils to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and peripheral blood eosinophilia (PBE) are rapid and relatively inexpensive tests that can be easily applied in the clinical practice for the diagnosis and treatment of AECOPD patients. Furthermore, current studies found that NLR and PBE had a higher accuracy rate than other traditional markers (Leukocyte count and C-reactive protein) for the diagnosis and management of AECOPD. Besides, recent studies determined that NLR and PBE can be used for prediction of future exacerbations in COPD patients. This review aims to explore the current knowledge about the significance of NLR and PBE in AECOPD patients.
Highlights
Both neutrophils to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and peripheral blood eosinophilia (PBE) are rapid and relatively inexpensive tests that can be applied in the clinical practice for the diagnosis and treatment of acute exacerbation of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (AECOPD) patients
This review aims to explore the current knowledge about the significance of NLR and PBE in AECOPD patients
This review aims to explore the current knowledge about the significance of neutrophil to lymphocytes ratio (NLR) and peripheral blood eosinophilia (PBE) in COPD patients with acute exacerbation
Summary
The pulmonary function tests are the most common traditional criteria used to assess the severity of the clinical phenotypes and the disease progression, lung function tests alone are not usually enough to diagnose the exacerbations of COPD [7] According to those challenges, such inflammatory markers become reasonable to assess the severity and treatment of the disease. The neutrophil to lymphocytes ratio (NLR) is an indicator that can be calculated from the routine blood tests, is a rapid and relatively inexpensive test that is readily applicable in the clinical practice Recent studies emphasized this index had a strong relationship to the systemic inflammatory response in AECOPD and other chronic diseases such as gastrointestinal cancers, cardiovascular disease and chronic renal failure [10] [11] [12]. This review aims to explore the current knowledge about the significance of neutrophil to lymphocytes ratio (NLR) and peripheral blood eosinophilia (PBE) in COPD patients with acute exacerbation
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