Endocrine Abstracts

Obesity has been associated with a status of subclinical inflammation. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NRL) is a widely available and inexpensive inflammatory marker which can be reliable in evaluating the inflammatory status occurring in patients with severe obesity The aim of our study was to investigate the association between NLR and anthropometric and body-composition parameters, in a group of patients with obesity

Patients and Methods: 737 patients with obesity, consecutively evaluated in our tertiary endocrinology center were included. They were all clinically evaluated (medical history, basic clinical examination, blood pressure and anthropometric measurements). Blood tests were performed for all patients (including complete blood count with NLR measurement, lipids and glucose profile). For a subgroup of 334 patients, whole body DXA scans were performed to analyse body composition (total fat mas, total lean mass)

Results: Our group included 264 men and 473 women with obesity, mean age 41.31±11.2 years, mean BMI 44.7±7.9 kg/m2. NLR was higher in women (2.24 ±0.9 vs 2.03±0.8, P<0.05) and, in univariate analysis, positively correlated with BMI (r=0.174, P<0.01), waist circumference (r=0.09, P=0.02), and waist/height ratio (r=0.134, P<0.01). There was no impact of diabetes status on NLR values, but hypertensive patients had higher NLR values (P<0.05). In the subgroup of patients with body composition analysis, NLR positively correlated with total fat mass (r=0.136, P=0.019) and gynoid fat mass (r=0.179, P=0.002), but not with lean mass (total or regional). In a linear regression analysis, with NLR as dependent variable and factors previously shown to significantly correlate to its level as independent variables, gender and BMI remained independently associated with NLR

Conclusions: Gender and adiposity level, but not lean mass, are factors associated with NLR in patients with severe obesity