Inflammation and platelet activation play a central role in the initiation and progression of the atherosclerosis process. The Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is a new prognostic marker in coronary artery disease. The PLR is a significant independent predictor of long-term mortality after none-ST elevated myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). We aimed to evaluate the relationship between PLR and no-reflow (NR) in patients with NSTEMI.
The present study included 173 patients with NSTEMI. The patients were classified into two groups as follows: 115 patients in the NR group and 58 patients in the normal reflow group. NR was defined as coronary thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) flow grade ≤ 2 after vessel recanalization with primary percutaneous coronary intervention. The PLR was calculated from the complete blood count.
The PLR values of the patients with NR were significantly higher than those of patients with normal reflow (108.6 (14.6-511.3) vs. 91.7 (17.2-225.3), p = 0.01). Also, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was significantly higher in the NR group than the normal-reflow group (3.0 (0.3-16.5) vs. 2.3 (0.01-12.5), p = 0.02). The Correlation between the PLR and NLR was positive and significant (r = 0.68, p < 0.001).
This study showed that PLR is an independent predictor of NR in patients with NSTEMI.