Evaluation of white blood cell and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio in acute coronary syndrome patients admitted to emergency department

Objective: Inflammatory reaction, which causes tissue damage in Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), leads to deterioration. White Blood Cell (WBC), Neutrophil (N), Lymphocyte (L) and Neutrophil/ Lymphocyte (N/L) ratios were used to refer to the inflammation. High neutrophil levels show us acute inflammatory situation and low lymphocyte levels show us physiological stress. That is why N/L ratio is a valuable parameter which enables us to guess patient prognosis in Emergency Department (ED). In this study, white cell and NLR relations with ACS in patients with chest pain is evaluated. Material and Method: Patients referring to ED with chest pain within 3 months were investigated retrospectively. 100 patients were included in the study. Patients' WBC count, NLR and WBC values, gender, Troponin-I and CK-MB positivity, history of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and additional diseases were examined according to the final diagnoses. All the patients were divided into three groups according to ACS: Unstable Angina Pectoris (USAP), Non-ST Elevated Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI), and ST-Elevated Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). Mortality and morbidity levels in hospital and after discharge were also examined in the study. Findings: WBC values in patients with positive Troponin-I were found statistically higher than patients with negative Troponin-I (p<0.05). In STEMI group, WBC values were statistically higher than USAP group (p<0.0083). When patients' N/L ratio average distribution was examined; Troponin-I and CK-MB positive patients' NLR was found to be statistically higher than Troponin-I and CK-MB negative ones (p<0.05). Conclusion: N/L ratio, which is a marker of inflammatory process in the myocardial vascular bed, may be considered as a risk marker. For this reason, N/L ratio at admission can be used as an auxiliary parameter for predicting the diagnosis of ACS.