Correlation analysis of carotid plaque in young patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio

OBJECTIVE: Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been reported to be related to atherosclerosis. The relationship between PLR, NLR, and carotid atherosclerotic plaque in young patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes has not been clinically reported. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between PLR, NLR, and carotid plaques in young patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. METHOD: The total 268 patients were divided into the intima-media-thickening (IMT) group (116 cases) and plaque group (152 cases). The plaque group was divided into grade I (62 cases), grade II (47 cases), and grade III groups (43 cases). The counts of platelets, neutrophils, and lymphocytes were determined. RESULTS: The diagnostic effect of PLR and NLR was evaluated by the receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) and areas under the curve (AUC). The PLR and NLR values in the observation group were higher than those in the control group; these two values in the plaque group were also higher than those in the IMT group. The two values in the grade III plaque group were higher than those in grade II. The values in the grade II plaque group were also higher than those in the grade I plaque group. The ROC of PLR and NLR were 0.722 and 0.653, and the AUC of PLR and NLR were 111.086 and 2.240. PLR yielded a sensitivity of 0.789 and a specificity of 0.612. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio yielded a sensitivity of 0.809 and a specificity of 0.511. CONCLUSION: The PLR and NLR may be related to carotid inflammation in patients and positively correlated with carotid plaque.