Evaluation of Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Mean Platelet Volume in Patients with Branchial Cleft Cyst

Abstract

Branchial cleft cysts are benign masses of the head and neck. Etiopathogenesis is unclear and many factors such as inflammatory mechanisms can play a role. The aim of our study is to investigate the predictive value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and mean platelet volume (MPV), which are hematologic inflammatory markers, in branchial cleft cyst (BCC). The records of 27 patients who were operated with the diagnosis of BCC in the ENT clinic between January 2011 and March 2020 and 27 healty subjects were retrospectively reviewed. The control group consisted age and sex-matched subjects scheduled for rhinoplasty. Neutrophil, lymphocyte, platelet and MPV values were recorded from the complete blood count samples for all participants. The statistical relationship for NLR, PLR and MPV values between the patient and the control groups was investigated. The NLR values of the patients were significantly lower than the healthy controls (p:0.007). But no statistically significant correlation was found for PLR (p:0.586) and MPV(p:0.676) values between the groups. This is the first study to evaluate the significance of NLR, PLR and MPV in branchial cleft cyst. Decreased NLR may be used as a predictive marker for BCC. But PLR ande MPV should not be used to predict branchial cleft cyst.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12070-021-02789-1.

Keywords: Branchial cleft cyst; Inflammatory markers; Mean platelet volume; Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio.