The Role of Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio and Platelet to Lymphocyte Ration in Children’s Obesity

Overweight and obesity is a current global health problem carrying multiple burdens in both children and adults. In obesity we have a chronic inflammatory status due to an alteration of immune activity in adipose tissue consisting in a transiently infiltration of neutrophils within the abdominal fat and their binding to adipocytes. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and Platelet to lymphocyte ration (PLR) are cost-effective markers for the detection of subclinical inflammation.

Material and Method: We performed a prospective study on 132 children aged from 5 to 18 years, admitted in a Pediatric Tertiary Hospital during the year 2018, divided according to the value of body mass index (BMI) into 2 groups: group 1, study group – 55 obese children (BMI ³ P95), and group 2, control group – including 77 children with normal BMI in order to evaluate the correlation of BMI with laboratory parameters (CBC, ESR, transaminases, total proteins, albumin), inflammatory biomarkers, as NLR and PLR and abdominal ultrasound. changes

Results: We found that leukocytes, lymphocytes, erythrocytes, platelets and transaminases were significantly higher in overweight/obese group (p=0.033/p=0.0003/p=0.0005/ p=0.0003/p=0.034/p0.0001). We did not encounter any significant statistical differences between the 2 groups in terms of neutrophils, hemoglobin, albumin, total proteins and glycaemia (p0,05). Also, NLR and PLR did not differ significantly between the 2 groups.

Conclusions: Obesity is associated with systemic low-grade inflammation reaching alarming rates worldwide among both children and adults. We emphasize that leukocyte, lymphocyte, erythrocyte and platelet count are significantly higher in obese children related to inflammatory status in this condition.