Diagnostic value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio and red blood cell distribution width in tuberculosis combined with other bacterial infections

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the clinical significance of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio (FAR), and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) associated with other bacterial lung infections.

Methods

A total of 74 patients with PTB complicated with other bacterial lung infections, who were admitted to the Sixth People’s Hospital of Nantong City (Nantong, China) from January 2021 to December 2023, were included in this study as the PTB with infection complication group. A comparison group of 96 patients with uncomplicated PTB, admitted to the same hospital during the same period, was used as the PTB without infection complication group. The NLR, FAR, and RDW values in peripheral blood were determined and compared between the two groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of these indicators for early detection of PTB complicated with other bacterial infections.

Results

The NLR, FAR, and RDW values were significantly higher in the PTB with infection complication group compared to the PTB without infection complication group, with differences reaching statistical significance (P < 0.05). NLR value showed a positive correlation with white blood cell count, C-reactive protein levels, and D-dimer levels. ROC curve analysis indicated that the area under the curve (AUC) values for diagnosing PTB with bacterial infection using blood NLR, FAR, and RDW were 0.861, 0.818, and 0.799, respectively. The combined AUC value of these three indicators was 0.982. The validation results showed that the diagnostic sensitivity (98.6%) and specificity (89.58%) of the combination of NLR, FAR, and RDW were higher than those of each indicator alone.

Conclusion

The combined assessment of blood NLR, FAR, and RDW values has high clinical diagnostic value for diagnosing PTB complicated with other bacterial infections.