Objective: Accumulating data show that platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil to monocyte ratio (NMR) undergo changes during inflammation in various diseases; however, the clinical features remain unclear in knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients. The purpose of our study was to evaluate PLR and NMR in knee OA patients, and assess their relationship to knee OA's radiographic grades.
Methods: A retrospective study on 132 adult knee OA patients and 162 healthy controls (HC) was performed. All clinical characteristics of the knee OA patients were obtained from their medical records. PLR and NMR were compared between knee OA patients and HC by non-parametric tests. Correlations of PLR and NMR with Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) classification (KL grade 2, KL grade 3, and KL grade 4) were also analyzed through a Spearman correlation test. Ordinal polytomous logistic regression was used to determine independent factors influencing radiographic grades of knee OA patients.
Results: PLR was increased significantly in knee OA patients, while a statistical difference in NMR was not observed. However, PLR was not relevant to KL grades, while NMR was negatively correlated with these (r = -0.330, P < 0.01) and was independently associated with KL grades of knee OA.
Conclusion: PLR could reflect the inflammation response of knee OA. NMR emerged as an independent factor and could be used as a potential marker indicating the severity of knee OA.
Keywords: Biomarker; Kellgren-Lawrence grades; Knee osteoarthritis; Neutrophil to monocyte ratio; Platelet to lymphocyte ratio.