Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Insulin Resistance Relationship in Obese Individuals with Normal and Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Abstract

Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be a predictor of glucose intolerance in obese individuals and may be useful in the early detection of glucose intolerance. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between NLR and insulin resistance (IR) in obese individuals with normal and impaired glucose tolerance. Seventy-three obese patients and 27 healthy controls were included in this study. The participants' sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements (height, body weight, and waist circumference), fasting plasma glucose, oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), insulin, HbA1C, total cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL, TSH, complete blood count, and C-reactive protein (CRP) results were obtained from the files. Homeostasis Model Assessment Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) values were calculated. The mean age of the 100 patients was 36.4±10.5 years, and 59.0% were female. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the HOMA-IR and the BMI (r = 0.457, p = 0.000), HbA1C (r = 0.359, p = 0.000), CRP (r = 0.444, p = 0.000), and waist circumference (r = 0.478, p = 0.000). There was no statistically significant difference between the obese and healthy control groups in terms of NLR. However, there was a significant difference in NLR, CRP, and neutrophil counts between the high HOMA-IR and normal HOMA-IR groups. In our study, neutrophil counts and CRP were determined to be higher among obese individuals than among healthy individuals. The NLR was increased significantly among patients with IR.

Keywords

• Obesity
• insulin resistance
• neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio

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