title: The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios of our pediatric patients with Bell's palsy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) is considered to be a reliable indicator in etiological investigation and identification of the disease severity in inflammatory disorders. There are numerous observations or evidences suggesting that Bell's palsy is an inflammatory disorder.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Our aim was to investigate the presence of any clue which might suggest inflammatory etiology and also the presence of compliance between NLR elevation and inflammation severity in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients younger than 18 years with Bell's palsy and who had not another inflammatory disorder in addition to Bell's palsy were included. A total of 25 patients and 25 healthy individuals were taken. The patient group and the control group were compared in terms of NLR, neutrophil and lymphocytes. The relationship of NLR with pre-treatment House-Brackmann classification was evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age was 9.86±5.07 in the patient group and 9.14±5.94 in the control group. In all members of the patient group, oral prednisolone (1 mg/kg/d) was administered for 7 days. The post-treatment House-Brackmann classification of all patients was determined as grade 1. The average neutrophil values were significantly higher in the patient group. In terms of average lymphocyte values, no statistically significant difference was found. The average NLR value was 1.78 (0.93-4.58) in the pediatric patient group and 1.1 (0.6-2.05) in the control group. NLR was significantly higher in the patient group. NLR and pre-treatment House-Brackmann classification showed no statistically significant correlation (r=0.173, p>0.05). When cut-off value was taken as 3 for NLR, no statistically significant difference was found between groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High NLR values determined in pediatric patients with Bell's palsy support the inflammatory feature of this disease. NLR is recommended as a supportive parameter in the diagnosis of pediatric patients with Bell's palsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Medicine, Aydın, Turkey. Electronic address: draylineryilmaz@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Aylin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eryilmaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Medicine, Aydın, Turkey.
authors.forename: Yesim
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Basal
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Neurology, Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Medicine, Aydın, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tosun
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistic, Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Medicine, Aydın, Turkey.
authors.forename: Imran
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kurt Omurlu
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Adnan Menderes University, Faculty of Medicine, Aydın, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basak
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D020330:Bell Palsy / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008214:Lymphocytes; D008297:Male; D009504:Neutrophils; D011239:Prednisolone / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D011239:Prednisolone
keywords: Bell's palsy; Children; Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio