| dc.description.abstract | The systemic disorder, Diabetes Mellitus (DM) can eventually lead to microvascular
complications as a result of persistent subclinical vascular inflammation. The
literature has highlighted the use of haematological indices as predictors of
inflammation. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationship between
Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) and microvascular complications among type
2 DM patients attending Diabetic Centre, Teaching Hospital Jaffna. A laboratorybased
cross-sectional study was carried out among 235 already diagnosed type 2
DM patients selected on systematic sampling. Venous blood samples were collected
to assess the individual NLR using manual differential count while the history of
prevailing microvascular complications namely diabetic retinopathy, diabetic
nephropathy, and diabetic neuropathy was collected by referring to respective
patients’ clinical records. Among 235 subjects 131(55.7%) were female and
104(44.3%) were male, with a mean age of 56.82±11.65 years. The occurrence of
retinopathy, neuropathy, and nephropathy in the study group was 19.6%, 31.9%,
and 32.3% respectively. When compared to the mean NLR in individuals without
retinopathy (1.641), without nephropathy (1.525), and without neuropathy
(1.489); the mean NLR was higher in retinopathy (1.999), nephropathy (2.101), and
neuropathy (2.186) groups. These NLR differences were statistically significant
p=0.007, p<0.001, and p<0.001 respectively. Receiver operating characteristic
(ROC) curve analysis depicted that NLR was a better predictor of diabetic
neuropathy (AUC=0.797) followed by nephropathy (AUC=0.758), and retinopathy
(AUC=0.633). There is a significant relationship between NLR and the occurrence of
microvascular complications among type 2 DM patients. | en_US |
