Inflammatory and Nutritional Markers as Indicators for Diagnosing and Assessing Disease Activity in MS and NMOSD

Inflammation and nutritional markers have recently gained recognition for their roles in the fabrication of cognitive control centers demyelinating illnesses. Inflammatory indices such as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), systemic immune-inflammatory index (SII), and systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI), along with nutritional markers like albumin (ALB), hemoglobin (HB), and body mass index (BMI), may predict disease occurrence. However, their potential in evaluating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) remains unexplored. We retrospectively evaluated 249 NMOSD patients, 244 MS patients, and 249 healthy controls (HC), calculating MLR, NLR, PLR, SII, and SIRI, and measuring ALB, HB, and BMI levels. Logistic regression and ROC curves were used to develop and validate models for diagnosing and differentiating MS and NMOSD. Further, 35 MS patients, 38 NMOSD patients, and 85 matched HC were recruited for validation, and marker changes were monitored over six months. Comparing MS and NMOSD groups with HC, MLR, NLR, SII, and SIRI were significantly greater, while ALB levels were lower (P