Boachie Joseph, Ahiable Derrick, Ajabuin Leticia Awonbiistemi, Amissah Richard, Asmah-Brown Abigail, Apalebilah Safianu, Owusu-Poku Ama Gyasiwaah, Eshun Henrietta, Adu Patrick, Nyarkoh Joel Karikari
Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, KAAF University College, Ghana.
Pract Lab Med. 2025 Jul 17;46:e00494. doi: 10.1016/j.plabm.2025.e00494. eCollection 2025 Sep.
Malaria remains a public health issue. Its associated inflammatory responses can easily shift from benefit to detriment, making early detection of malarial inflammation crucial. The full blood count promises to be a less expensive assay serving as a surrogate marker for inflammation. This study, therefore, aimed to determine the diagnostic value of FBC-derived systemic inflammatory biomarkers in malaria infection.
We employ a single point case-control design that included 45 malaria patients and 50 healthy individuals. We collected their anthropometric, sociodemographic, and clinical information. FBC estimation and malaria parasite enumeration were determined for each participant.
Malaria patients had higher values of all the systemic inflammatory biomarkers (monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and aggregate index of systemic inflammation (AISI)) compared with healthy individuals. There was significant moderate correlation between parasite count and NLR, and MLR (ρ = 0.5 and ρ = 0.4) and a weak negative correlation with PLR and AISI (ρ = - 0.2 each). A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that NLR (AUC = 0.937) had an excellent diagnostic and predictive value, with sensitivity of 86.7 % and specificity of 92.0 %.
We have shown that the FBC-derived inflammatory biomarker- NLR- increases as parasite count increases. At a level of 2.12 and above, NLR is 86.7 % sensitive and 92.0 % specific in identifying the inflammatory state in malaria patients. Our findings show that the FBC-derived systemic inflammatory biomarkers provide a solution to the need for cost-effective surrogate inflammatory markers, especially in resource-deprived areas.
疟疾仍然是一个公共卫生问题。其相关的炎症反应很容易从有益转变为有害，因此早期检测疟疾炎症至关重要。全血细胞计数有望成为一种成本较低的检测方法，作为炎症的替代标志物。因此，本研究旨在确定全血细胞计数衍生的全身炎症生物标志物在疟疾感染中的诊断价值。
我们采用单点病例对照设计，纳入了45名疟疾患者和50名健康个体。我们收集了他们的人体测量、社会人口统计学和临床信息。对每位参与者进行全血细胞计数评估和疟原虫计数。
与健康个体相比，疟疾患者的所有全身炎症生物标志物（单核细胞与淋巴细胞比率（MLR）、中性粒细胞与淋巴细胞比率（NLR）、血小板与淋巴细胞比率（PLR）以及全身炎症综合指数（AISI））值更高。疟原虫计数与NLR和MLR之间存在显著的中度相关性（ρ = 0.5和ρ = 0.4），与PLR和AISI之间存在弱负相关性（均为ρ = -0.2）。受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线分析表明，NLR（AUC = 0.937）具有出色的诊断和预测价值，敏感性为86.7%，特异性为92.0%。
我们已经表明，随着疟原虫计数增加，全血细胞计数衍生的炎症生物标志物——NLR也会增加。在2.12及以上的水平，NLR在识别疟疾患者炎症状态时的敏感性为86.7%，特异性为92.0%。我们的研究结果表明，全血细胞计数衍生的全身炎症生物标志物为满足对具有成本效益的替代炎症标志物的需求提供了解决方案，尤其是在资源匮乏地区。
