Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Nov 18;19(11):e0313503.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313503. eCollection 2024.

Predictive role of the peripheral blood inflammation indices neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immunoinflammatory index (SII) for age-related cataract risk

Baohua Li  1 , Xinyue Hou  1 , Bobiao Ning  2 , Xiao Li  3 , MingMing Zhang  1 , Jianquan Wang  1 , Mengyu Liu  1 , Yipeng Shi  1 , Zefeng Kang  1
Affiliations

Predictive role of the peripheral blood inflammation indices neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immunoinflammatory index (SII) for age-related cataract risk

Baohua Li et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The novel inflammatory markers neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immunoinflammatory index (SII) have not yet been used in the study of age-related cataracts. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relationships between the NLR, PLR, and SII and age-related cataracts. In the 2005-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cross-sectional surveys, we collected complete information on blood counts, whether cataract surgery had been performed, and baseline information for adults. We investigated the independent interactions between the inflammatory markers NLR, PLR, and SII and age-related cataracts via weighted multivariate regression analyses and subgroup analyses. Smoothed curve fitting was performed to identify nonlinear associations and saturation effects between inflammation indices and cataract risk. Finally, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted for factors significantly associated with the development of cataracts to identify the optimal diagnostic inflammation index. This study included 8887 participants without cataracts and 935 participants with cataracts. Multivariate logistic regression analyses after adjusting for covariates revealed that a high SII (OR = 1.000, 95% CI = 1.000-1.000; P = 0.017) and high NLR (OR = 1.065, 95% CI = 1.000-1.134; P = 0.048) were independent risk factors for cataracts. Subgroup analyses did not reveal interactions between the SII, NLR, or cataract and covariates. Smoothed curve fits of the relationships between the SII or NLR and cataracts did not show positive significant saturating effect values for any of the variables. The ROC curve revealed some diagnostic value for cataracts for both the SII (AUC = 0.549, P < 0.001) and the NLR (AUC = 0.603, P < 0.001), but both had weak diagnostic value. Our study suggests that the SII and NLR are independent risk factors for cataracts in U.S. adults, but no such associations was identified between the PLR and cataracts.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flow diagram showing selection of study participants.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Relationship between SII, NLR and cataract risk.
The red solid line represents a smoothed curve fit of SII to cataract risk. The blue dashed line represents the 95% confidence interval of the smoothed curve fit. (A) Relationship between SII and cataract risk; (B) Relationship between NLR and cataract risk.
Fig 3
Fig 3. ROC analysis of SII, NLR for cataract diagnosis.
AUC, area under curve.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Hashemi H, Pakzad R, Aghamirsalim M, Yekta A, Mortazavi M, Pourmatin R, et al.. Age- and Sex-Standardized Prevalence of Age-Related Cataract and Its Determinants; Tehran Geriatric Eye Study (TGES). Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2022;29(5):554–65. doi: 10.1080/09286586.2021.1976804 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bourne RRA, Flaxman SR, Braithwaite T, Cicinelli MV, Das A, Jonas JB, et al.. Magnitude, temporal trends, and projections of the global prevalence of blindness and distance and near vision impairment: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Glob Health. 2017;5(9):e888–e97. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30293-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Flaxman SR, Bourne RRA, Resnikoff S, Ackland P, Braithwaite T, Cicinelli MV, et al.. Global causes of blindness and distance vision impairment 1990–2020: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Glob Health. 2017;5(12):e1221–e34. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30393-5 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nam GE, Han K, Ha SG, Han BD, Kim DH, Kim YH, et al.. Relationship between socioeconomic and lifestyle factors and cataracts in Koreans: the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2008–2011. Eye (Lond). 2015;29(7):913–20. doi: 10.1038/eye.2015.66 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sandor GL, Toth G, Szabo D, Szalai I, Lukacs R, Pek A, et al.. Cataract blindness in Hungary. Int J Ophthalmol. 2020;13(3):438–44. doi: 10.18240/ijo.2020.03.11 - DOI - PMC - PubMed