Association of Inflammatory-Hematological Biomarkers with Hypertension and Related Comorbidities.

Background

According to current data, arterial hypertension (HTN) remains the leading cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. Oftentimes, HTN is accompanied by type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and chronic kidney disease (CKD), interconnected by a pro-inflammatory pattern. Our study aimed to evaluate the roles of hematological serum cells, such as neutrophils, lymphocytes, and platelets, as well as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), in subjects with HTN, CKD, and/or T2DM.

Methods

This retrospective unicentric study included 6077 patients admitted between 2018 and 2023; after applying exclusion criteria, patients were divided into groups for a comparative multivariate analysis.

Results

The Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test showed statistically significant differences between groups. Higher neutrophil counts, lower lymphocyte counts, and platelet fluctuations were positively associated with HTN + comorbidities (p < 0.001 **). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis identified statistically significant associations for neutrophils and NLR in HTN (AUC = 0.442, p < 0.001 **, cut-off = 1.1217), for lymphocytes in HTN + T2DM (AUC sensitivity of 64.1%, cut-off = 18.950), for NLR (AUC 0.567, sensitivity of 50.6% and a specificity of 61.9% cut-off = 4.4174) and neutrophils (cut-off = 73.550) in HTN + CKD, and for NLR and PLR in HTN + CKD + T2DM (both having reliable AUC; sensitivity 87.9% and 81.8% for cut-off = 2.6957 and 10.5194, respectively). In all groups, AUC specificities were below the acceptable threshold (which considerably diminishes the practical clinical usability potential of these markers).

Conclusions

This study demonstrated an association between hematological pro-inflammatory markers and hypertension and its comorbidities.