title: The Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio on Admission and Short-Term Outcomes in Orthogeriatric Patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the association of the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) at admission with presence of fracture, comorbid conditions, and its prognostic value for short-term outcomes in orthogeriatric patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  On 415 consecutive patients (mean age 78.8 ±8.7[SD] years, 281 women, 255 with a non-vertebral bone fracture, including 167 with a hip fracture, HF) admitted to the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Canberra hospital (2010 - 2011) data on clinical and laboratory characteristics were collected prospectively. The validation dataset included 294 consecutive patients (mean age 82.1 ± 8.0 years, 72.1% women) with HF.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multivariate regression revealed four variables, presence of HF, hypoalbuminaemia (<33g/L), anaemia (<120g/L) and hyperparathyroidism (PTH>6.8 pmol/L), as independent determinants of admission NLR≥5.1. There was a dose-graded relationship between presence of fracture, especially HF, postoperative complications and levels of NLR categorized as tertiles. Compared to patients with NLR<5.1(first tertile), patients with NLR 5.1-8.5 (second tertile) had a 1.8-, 3.1-, 2.6-, and 2.5-fold higher risk for presence of any fracture, HF, developing postoperative myocardial injury (troponin I rise) and a high inflammatory response/infection (CRP>100mg/L after the 3rd postoperative day), respectively, while in subjects with NLR>8.5 (third tertile) these risks were 2.6-, 4.9-, 5.9- and 4.5-times higher, respectively; subjects with NLR>8.5 had a 9.7 times higher chance of dying in the hospital compared to patients with NLR 5.1-8.5; the NLR retained its significance on multivariate analyses. The NLR ≥5.1 predicted postoperative myocardial injury with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.626, CRP>100mg/L with AUC of 0.631 and the NLR >8.5 predicted in-hospital mortality with an AUC of 0.793, showing moderately high sensitivity (86.7%, 80% and 90%, respectively) and negative predictive value (92.9%, 71.2%, 99.6%, respectively), but low specificity. Admission NLR was superior to other, except hypoalbuminaemia, prognostic markers; combined use of both NLR≥5.1 and albumin<33g/L only moderately increased the accuracy of prediction. The validation study confirmed the prognostic value of the admission NLR.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In orthogeriatric patients, high NLR on admission is an independent indicator of fracture presence, a significant risk factor and moderate predictor of postoperative myocardial injury, high inflammatory response/infection and in-hospital death.
authors: Department of Geriatric Medicine, The Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
authors: Alexander
authors: A
authors: Fisher
authors: Department of Geriatric Medicine, The Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
authors: Wichat
authors: W
authors: Srikusalanukul
authors: Department of Gastroenterology, The Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
authors: Leon
authors: L
authors: Fisher
authors: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia; Australian National University Medical School, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Smith
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006620:Hip Fractures / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: hip fracture; neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR); orthogeriatric patients; outcomes