Salimi Maryam, Khanzadeh Shokoufeh, Lucke-Wold Brandon, Ghaedi Arshin, Stone Austin V
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Texas Health Sciences Center, McGovern Medical School, Houston, TX 77030, United States.
Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz 5166614711, Iran.
World J Orthop. 2025 May 18;16(5):106145. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v16.i5.106145.
Osteoarthritis (OA) involves low-grade inflammation. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may serve as a simple biomarker, but its role in OA remains unclear.
To review the existing scientific literature on the role of NLR in OA, a classic age-related disorder, to perform a meta-analysis of the available data.
The electronic databases PubMed, ProQuest, and Scopus were systematically searched from inception to March 1, 2024. The inclusion criteria were retrospective and prospective case-control studies involving human subjects with OA and healthy controls. The included studies needed to provide NLR levels for both OA patients and healthy controls and perform a comparative analysis of NLR levels between these groups.
According to the PRISMA guidelines, fifteen articles were included in the meta-analysis after multiple screenings. The pooled results demonstrated a significant overall elevation of NLR in OA patients compared to healthy controls. (standardized mean difference = 0.39, 95% confidence interval: 0.03-0.75, = 0.03). However, the subgroup analysis shows no significant differences in NLR levels when considering study design (retrospective prospective) and OA severity (severe mild-moderate). This suggests variability and potential limitations in using NLR as a consistent marker across different study types and OA severity.
Our study found that OA patients have higher NLR than healthy individuals. However, NLR did not significantly differ by study type or disease severity, suggesting its limited use in indicating OA severity.
骨关节炎（OA）涉及低度炎症。中性粒细胞与淋巴细胞比值（NLR）可能是一种简单的生物标志物，但其在OA中的作用仍不清楚。
回顾关于NLR在OA（一种典型的与年龄相关的疾病）中作用的现有科学文献，对现有数据进行荟萃分析。
从数据库建立至2024年3月1日，系统检索电子数据库PubMed、ProQuest和Scopus。纳入标准为涉及OA患者和健康对照的回顾性和前瞻性病例对照研究。纳入的研究需提供OA患者和健康对照的NLR水平，并对两组之间的NLR水平进行比较分析。
根据PRISMA指南，经过多次筛选，15篇文章被纳入荟萃分析。汇总结果显示，与健康对照相比，OA患者的NLR总体显著升高。（标准化平均差=0.39，95%置信区间：0.03 - 0.75，P = 0.03）。然而，亚组分析显示，在考虑研究设计（回顾性vs前瞻性）和OA严重程度（重度vs轻度 - 中度）时，NLR水平无显著差异。这表明在不同研究类型和OA严重程度中使用NLR作为一致的标志物存在变异性和潜在局限性。
我们的研究发现，OA患者的NLR高于健康个体。然而，NLR在研究类型或疾病严重程度方面没有显著差异，这表明其在指示OA严重程度方面的应用有限。
