Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio may predict in-hospital mortality in patients with acute type A aortic dissection.

INTRODUCTION

Inflammation has been reported to be associated with aortic dissection (AD), from the development to the prognosis of AD. In this study we aimed to find the role of the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the prediction of clinical events in patients with acute AD type A.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

The study comprised 37 patients who were hospitalized at our center between 2009 and 2013 with the diagnosis of acute AD type A.

RESULTS

The mean NLR was significantly higher in patients with pericardial effusion than those without effusion (15.6 ± 11.4 vs. 7.5 ± 4.8, p = 0.005). An NLR value > 8.51 yielded an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.829 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.674-0.984, p = 0.004], which demonstrated a sensitivity of 77 % and specificity of 74 % for the prediction of mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

The novel inflammatory marker NLR could be used to predict pericardial effusion and in-hospital mortality in patients with acute AD type A.