title: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in occlusive vascular diseases: the literature review of the past 10 years.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aims to evaluate the results of studies investigating neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and to identify the prognostic and diagnostic value of NLR in occlusive vascular diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  With the aim of identifying the studies related to NLR, a search was performed on http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed by using the key words "neutrophil lymphocyte ratio" between January 2005 and December 2014. All of the original articles were evaluated according to date of publications, countries, clinics and topics. Studies about occlusive vascular diseases were evaluated according to their qualifications, review methods and results. SPSS for Windows 16.0 was used in data analysis and data were expressed as mean, standard deviation and percentage.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 735 original research articles were investigated. The number of publications have shown a regular logarithmic increase over the years. Thirty-two percent of all publications were performed by clinics in Turkey and 56.4% were performed by general-oncological surgery and cardiology clinics. A total of 107 publications were identified to be about occlusive vascular diseases, 80.3% of these publications were found to be prognostic and 19.6% to be diagnostic, 82.2% of them were found to be planned as retrospective and 17.7% as prospective. In 95.3% of prognostic publications, there was a positive correlation between high NLR values at admission and poor prognosis. In 95.3% of diagnostic publications high NLR values at admission were identified to be significant diagnostically.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio at admission, could be used as a diagnostic and/or prognostic parameter in occlusive vascular diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Training and Research Hospital, Sakarya University, Sakarya 54000, Turkey.
authors.forename: Egemen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Küçük
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Training and Research Hospital, Sakarya University, Sakarya 54000, Turkey.
authors.forename: İbrahim
authors.initials: İ
authors.lastname: Kocayiğit
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Training and Research Hospital, Sakarya University, Sakarya 54000, Turkey.
authors.forename: Candan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Günel
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Diseases, Training and Research Hospital, Sakarya University, Sakarya 54000, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Düzenli
keywords: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; Occlusive vascular diseases; Publication