Purpose: To evaluate the association between two inflammatory biomarkers of neutrophil -lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).
Methods and materials: Systematic search was performed up to June 2020 in databases such as PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google scholar. The random-effects model was utilised to combine the weighted mean differences (WMDs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: Out of a total of 849 articles, sixteen studies were eligible. Our findings indicated higher NLR (WMD = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.25, 0.71) and PLR (WMD = 8.22, 95% CI: -0.50, 16.94) values in pregnancies diagnosed with GDM compared with non-GDM control pregnancies. However, the difference in PLR value did not reach a statistically significant level (Z = 1.85, p = 0.065). In meta-regression analysis, we found no significant influence of total sample size [for NLR (B= -0.0, p = 0.13), for PLR (B= -0.02, p = 0.55)] and publication year [for NLR (B= -0.02, p = 0.61), for PLR (B = 0.89, p = 0.75)] on association between NLR and PLR with GDM.
Conclusion: The current meta-analysis is the first, to our knowledge, to show that NLR value is significantly associated with GDM. However, PLR showed no significant association with GDM.
Keywords: GDM; NLR; Neutrophil; PLR; diabetes; platelet; pregnancy.