Assessment of the white blood cell subtypes ratio in patients with supraventricular tachycardia: Retrospective cohort study

Aim: Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte/lymphocyte ratio (MLR) and lymphocyte/monocyte ratio (LMR) have been considered to be the new cardiovascular risk predictors. Inflammation has been shown to be associated with various types of arrhythmia. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between NLR, LMR and MLR in patients with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). Methods: Our study included 59 patients aged 18 years or older who visited our clinic between December 2017 and December 2018. Thirty-three patients were diagnosed with definitive diagnosis of tachycardia using electrocardiographic (ECG) method, and hospitalized for ablation. The other 26 patients were the ones who underwent electrophysiological study (EPS) as it was not possible to make a diagnosis of arrhythmia using non-invasive methods despite ongoing complaints of palpitation. Blood samples were taken from all patients for pre-operative complete blood count analysis. NLR was calculated as the ratio of neutrophil count to lymphocyte count. MLR was calculated as the ratio of monocyte count to lymphocyte count. LMR was calculated as the ratio of lymphocyte count to monocyte count. In addition, electrophysiological study (EPS) was performed for treatment purposes in patients diagnosed with SVT; and for diagnosis and treatment purposes in patients who have the complaint of palpitation, however, could not be diagnosed using non-invasive methods. Results: This study included 33 patients with SVT and 26 healthy controls who underwent EPS. When hematological parameters were compared, there was no statistically significant difference in NLR values (1.96 (0.69) 103/μL vs. 2.17 (1.29) 103/μL, p=0.42). Moreover, both MLR (0.25 (0.09) 103/μL vs. 0.22 (0.08)) 103/μL, p=0.19) and LMR (4.64 (1.37) 103/μL vs. 4.64 (1.45)) 103/μL, p = 0.49) were not statistically significant between the two groups. Conclusion: This study showed that NLR, LMR and MLR values cannot be used as predictors for the presence of SVT