Correlation between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and kidney dysfunction in undiagnosed hypertensive population from general health checkup

Recently, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) are frequently used to evaluate disease progression and outcome. Here, we aim to analyze the associations between NLR or MLR and kidney function in undiagnosed hypertensive individuals from general population during routine health checkup. Liver function was analyzed for comparison. From 2011 to 2016, 53 939 examiners have registered for health checkup in Yanbian University Hospital, Yanbian, China. Among 15 219 participants who have complete datasets, 4997 individuals were hypertensive (HTN, SBP/DBP: ≥ 140/90 mm Hg). NLR, glucose, lipids (Chol, TG, LDL), kidney (CREA, BUN), and liver (AST, ALT, GGT, ALB, TBIL) functional parameters were significantly higher in HTN. Pearman correlation analysis showed that NLR was positively correlated with SBP and CREA only in HTN. MLR was associated with CREA in both HTN and non-HTN. NLR or MLR was associated with liver functions similarly in HTN and non-HTN. The authors then divided NLR or MLR into tertiles (NLR: 0-1.7276, 1.7276-3, >3; MLR: 0-0.1845, 0.1845-0.3, >0.3). NLR was positively associated with BUN at NLR >1.7276 and with CREA at all tertiles in HTN. MLR was correlated with CREA and BUN at high MLR in non-HTN. Further analysis showed that age or gender did not affect the associations of NLR and MLR with kidney function in HTN, but strong association was observed in male or aged (>65 years old) non-HTN group. These results showed that NLR could be used as a cost-effective predictor of kidney abnormality in HTN patients even in a general population.