Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio As A Predictive Biomarker for Computed Tomography Scan Use in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
George Α. Alexiou, Georgios D. Lianos, Aggeliki Tzima, Athanasios Sotiropoulos, Anastasios Nasios, Dimitris Metaxas, Andreas Zigouris, Jolanda Zika, Michail Mitsis, Spyridon Voulgaris
Abstract
Aim: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious health concern. We set out to investigate the role of neutrophil-to-lymphocytes ratio (NLR) at admission for predicting the need for computed tomography (CT) in mild-TBI. Materials & methods: A retrospective study of adult patients who presented with mild-TBI Results: One hundred and thirty patients met the inclusion criteria. Seventy-four patients had positive CT-findings. The mean NLR-levels at presentations were 5.6 ± 4.8. Patients with positive CT-findings had significant higher NLR-levels. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted and the threshold of NLR-levels for detecting the cases with positive CT-findings was 2.5, with 78.1% sensitivity and 63% specificity Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge no previous study has assessed the value of NLR-levels for predicting the need for CT in mild-TBI.