Investigation of systemic inflammatory biomarkers in acute post-cataract surgery endophthalmitis

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate changes in systemic inflammatory biomarkers, including neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, and platelet counts, mean platelet volume (MPV), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in acute post-cataract surgery endophthalmitis (APSE) cases.
METHODS: This retrospective case–control study was conducted with 36 patients who underwent pars plana vitrectomy due to APSE and 36 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects who underwent uneventful cataract surgery. Neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, and platelet counts, and MPV were obtained through peripheral blood sampling before pars plana vitrectomy in the APSE group and before cataract surgery in the control group. All these biomarkers and NLR and PLR were compared with statistical methods.
RESULTS: The mean age and male-to-female ratio were similar between APSE and control groups (p>0.05, for both). The mean values of neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, and platelet counts, MPV, and PLR were also similar between groups (p>0.05, for all). The mean values of NLR were 2.68±0.78 (1.15–4.18) in the APSE group and 2.04±0.50 (1.06–3.33) in the control group (p=0.019). NLR value of ≥2.10 was determined as a predictor of APSE with 72% sensitivity and 63% specificity.
CONCLUSION: NLR is a systemic inflammatory biomarker that is higher in APSE cases than in healthy subjects. Higher NLR values in presumed APSE cases can be considered as a finding in favor of APSE, which should be considered with other findings.