Role of Haematological Inflammatory indices in the Occurrence of Coronary Artery Disease: A Preliminary Retrospective Case-Control Study.

BACKGROUND

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a paramount cardiovascular disease that significantly contributes to global mortality. Recent literature reports hematological inflammatory indices as promising surrogate markers for identifying CAD. This study aims to simultaneously investigate the potential of five inflammatory indices to assess the association with the occurrence of CAD in the Asian Indian population.

METHODOLOGY: We conducted an age-matched retrospective case-control study among one hundred and thirty-one male cases and controls, and ninety-seven female cases and controls, based on the coronary angiogram performed in the Department of Cardiology in a tertiary referral hospital in southern India. From the Complete Blood Count reports, Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), Platelet-to-Lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and Lymphocyte-to-Monocyte ratio (LMR) were calculated for each subject. Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) and Mean Platelet Volume (MPV) values were collected from the laboratory reports. Student t-test and Mann-Whitney test were applied for analysing data that denoted Gaussian distribution and skewed distribution, respectively. To obtain diagnostic accuracy, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were applied, designating the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity.

RESULTS

Among the five inflammatory biomarkers, ESR and NLR demonstrated comparatively better discriminatory ability in both males (AUC=0.717, 0.7397) and females (AUC=0.8042, 0.7397).

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that ESR and NLR are quick and cost-effective biomarkers and may serve as adjunctive markers of coronary artery disease in the Asian Indian population.