Objectives:
Brucellosis is a zoonotic infectious disease. C-reactive protein (CRP) is widely used in the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of brucellosis. However, CRP is not a specific test. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the role of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio and red cell distribution width (RDW) as inflammatory markers in brucellosis.
Materials and Methods:
In our study, ≥18 year old brucellosis patients followed between January 1st, 2017 and January 1st, 2019 were included. Patients’ data were obtained through hospital information systems. Initial and monthly consecutive values of neutrophil counts, lymphocyte counts, platelet counts, RDW and CRP levels were recorded.
Results:
One hundredand thirty-six patients were included in the study. 63.2% (n=86) of the cases were male. It was determined that Brucella spp. was cultured in 7.4% of the patients’ samples. The patients were given antibacterial treatment during the median period of 7 (6-40) weeks. Under treatment, CRP and NLR declined significantly (p<0.05). At the end of the first and second months, RDW declined significantly but the same association could not be detected at the end of the third month (p=0.059). It was found that only NLR was correlated with CRP levels and its declining trend (p<0.05).
Conclusion:
It is concluded that the values of NLR and RDW are useful to monitor treatment response in brucellosis patients. These values provide advantage since they can speedily be measured via automated complete blood count analyzer with no necessity for additional cost and human capital.
; Üçer, Sengül