I n t r o d u c t i o n: A high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been reported to be a strong biomarker of inflammation.

A i m: We sought to evaluate the impact of NLR on long-term all-cause and cardio-vascular (CV) mortality in hemodialysis (HD) patients.

Ma t e r i a l a n d Me t h o d s: A total of 84 chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 5 patients with 54 of them on HD, with a median age of 61.5 (51.3–74.8) years were enrolled. The association between NLR and clinical biomarkers was investigated. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was used to find significant predictors of all-cause and CV mortality at follow-up.

R e s u l t s: The median NLR (interquartile range) was 3.0 (2.1–4.1). Patients with NLR ≥3.9 (the highest tertile) had higher five-year all-cause mortality then remaining patients (53.6% vs. 30.4%; p = 0.039). On the contrary, only a trend towards increased CV mortality was observed (25.0% vs. 42.9%; p = 0.10). NLR ≥3.9 was a significant predictor of all-cause mortality at five years [hazard ratio (95%CI): 2.23 (1.10– 4.50); p = 0.025] in Cox regression model adjusted for age, gender, and diabetes status. Similarly, while using NLR as continuous variable a significant association between NLR and all-cause mortality was confirmed even after adjustment for covariates [hazard ratio per 1 unit increase (95%CI): 1.26 (1.06–1.51); p = 0.009] with the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.64. Correlations between NLR and WBC, concentration of fibrinogen, albumin were observed.

C o n c l u s i o n s: Asymptomatic inflammation measured by NLR showed an association with long-term all-cause mortality in stage 5 CKD patients, even while white blood cell count was in the normal range.