Relationship between platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and cardiac syndrome X

Objective: Cardiac syndrome X consist of anginal-like typical chest pain with positive cardiovascular stres test or presence of ischemia on myocardial perfusion scintigraphy but no flow-limiting stenosis on coronary angiography. The more likely pathophysiologic mechanisms for patients with cardiac syndrome X are subsequent microvascular ischemia, endothelial dysfunction and inflammation which may be the explanation of their anginal-like chest pain. Platelet to lymphocyte ratio is a potential biomarker for inflammation, and associated with endothelial dysfunction. We aimed to compare the role of platelet to lymphocyte ratio in patients with cardiac syndrome X and control subjects in this study. Method: The study group consist of 100 patients who underwent coronary angiography and were diagnosed as cardiac syndrome X according to the presence of exercise-induced typical angina pectoris and ischemia on myocardial perfusion scintigraphy with angiographically normal coronary arteries. For control subjects, we recruited 100 healthy gender- and age-matched individuals who were seen for health check-ups. Results: According to comparison of the hematological indices, mean value of the platelet to lymphocyte ratio in study population was higher than control group (260±16 vs 217±14, respectively; p=0.04)whereas the other hematological parameters did not differ between groups significantly. Conclusions: The platelet to lymphocyte ratio, which is easily calculated from routinely studied compete blood count and therefore requires no additional cost might be usefull for the evaluation of cardiac syndrome X based on the results of our study.