• Tuba T Duman, Gulali Aktas, Burcin M Atak, Mehmet Z Kocak, Edip Erkus, and Haluk Savli.
• Abant Izzet Baysal University Hospital, Department of Internal Medicine, Bolu, Turkey.
• Afr Health Sci. 2019 Mar 1; 19 (1): 160216061602-1606.

BackgroundType 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with chronic low grade inflammation. One of the novel inflammatory markers is hemogram derived neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR).ObjectiveWe aimed to compare NLR levels of diabetic subjects and healthy controls and to observe possible correlation between NLR and HbA1c.MethodsMedical data of type 2 diabetic subjects admitted to out-patient clinics of our institution between April to July in 2017 were obtained from database and retrospectively analyzed. Control group was chosen from healthy subjects who visited our institution for a routine check-up. Anthropometric measures, laboratory data, including, HbA1c, NLR were recorded.ResultsMedian NLR of the type 2 DM group 2.44 (1.9) was significantly elevated when compared to healthy controls (1.5 (0.9), (p<0.001). In addition, a Pearson's correlation test revealed that NLR was strongly correlated with age (r=0.26, p=0.008), fasting plasma glucose (r=0.38, p<0.001), and HbA1c (r=0.49, p<0.001).ConclusionElevated NLR in otherwise healthy subjects may be indicative of underlying impaired glucose metabolism and moreover, NLR should be used as a marker of diabetic control level in addition to HbA1c in type 2 diabetic subjects.

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