The role of simple inflammatory blood parameters in idiopathic epiretinal membrane patients

Aim To evaluate the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in idiopathic epiretinal membrane (IERM) patients, and their relations with visual acuity. Method Fifty-seven IERM and 51 control patients were included. All patients underwent comprehensive ophthalmological examination and complete blood count tests, and NLR and PLR values were calculated. Patients with IERM were compared with the control group, and associations with visual prognosis were evaluated. These ratios’ cut-off values for IERM were also calculated Results NLR values were statistically significantly higher in the IERM group than in the control group ( p = 0.001). No significant difference was observed between the IERM and control groups in terms of PLR ( p = 0.43). No significant correlation was determined between visual acuity and NLR or PLR ( r = 0.05, p = 0.66; and r = 0.18, p = 0.16, respectively). The cut-off value for NLR was 1.91. Conclusion Patients with IERM showed significantly increased NLR compared to control subjects suggesting that IERM patients may be prone to have high NLR values.