Background: Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) is one of the serious and lethal cardiopulmonary diseases. Rapid diagnosis and therapy is of paramount importance. In recent years, various factors including white blood cell count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) have been used as prognostic factors in acute pulmonary embolism. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and mortality rate in patients with pulmonary thromboembolism treated with thrombolytic drugs.
Methods: A total of 40 patients hospitalized whit diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and treated with thrombolytic drugs were enrolled. Clinical data, admission complete blood count (CBC) parameters, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio were all recorded. The clinical outcomes of study subjects were determined using hospital- reported mortality data.
Findings: The mean age was 59.90±13.82 years, and 13 patients were women (32.5%). The mean white blood cell (WBC) count was 9673.25±2885.37. The mean neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio was 4.80±2.41; 7 patients (17.5%) died during hospital course. The mean neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio level was significantly higher among patients who died compared to those who survived (7.10±1.37 vs.4.31±2.31; P<0.01). The cut- off point of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio to predict mortality in these patients was 5.42 with sensitivity and specificity of 87.5% and 81.8%, respectively.
Conclusion: This study showed a correlation between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and hospital mortality rate in patients with acute pulmonary thromboembolism treated with thrombolysis.