A Novel Inflammatory Marker for the Diagnosis of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis: Platelet-Count-to-Lymphocyte-Count Ratio.

BACKGROUND

Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is a chronic autoimmune thyroiditis that causes systemic inflammation in the body, leading to hypothyroidism and an enlargement of the thyroid gland.

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to reveal whether there is a relationship between Hashimoto's thyroiditis and the platelet-count-to-lymphocyte-count ratio (PLR), which is used as a new inflammatory marker.

METHODS

In this retrospective study, we compared the PLR of the euthyroid HT group and the hypothyroid-thyrotoxic HT group to the controls. We also evaluated the values of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free T4 (fT4), C-reactive protein (CRP), aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), white blood cell count, lymphocyte count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and platelet count in each group.

RESULTS

The PLR of the subjects with Hashimoto's thyroiditis was found to be significantly different from the control group (p < 0.001), with the rankings as follows: hypothyroid-thyrotoxic HT 177% (72-417) > euthyroid HT 137% (69-272) > control group 103% (44-243). In addition to the increased PLR values, an increase in CRP values was also observed, revealing a strong positive correlation between the PLR and CRP in the HT patients.

CONCLUSION

In this study, we found out that the PLR was higher in the hypothyroid-thyrotoxic HT and euthyroid HT patients than in a healthy control group.