The diagnostic value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio in tuberculous spondylitis

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are useful markers in various inflammatory diseases, but their diagnostic capability intuberculous (TB) spondylitishas not been evaluated. Our aim was to investigate the diagnostic capability of NLR and PLR on the diagnosis of TB spondylitis. Patients surgically treated for TB spondylitisin the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from 2012 to 2015 were retrospectively investigated in this study. Correlations between NLR, PLR and laboratory indices in TB spondylitis patients were evaluated by the Spearman’s correlation analysis. The sensitivity and specificity of NLR and PLR were assessed by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Seventy-four TB spondylitis patients and 54 healthy individuals were analyzed retrospectively. The NLR and PLR between TB spondylitis patients and healthy controls were significant different. The relationship between NLR, C-reaction protein (CRP), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in TB spondylitis patients were significant correlation, similarly, the correlation between PLR and CRP and ESR in TB spondylitis patients were significantly correlated. The ROC curves analysis of NLR and PLR in TB spondylitis patients showed statistically significance. In conclusion, NLR and PLR might be valuable markers in diagnosing TB spondylitis.