Inflammatory Markers as a Predictor of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis: Cross-sectional study from Sultan Qaboos University Hospital

Objectives: Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a progressive metabolic bone disease resulting from oestrogen deficiency. Due to the silent nature of the disease, there is an urgent need for a simple, early predictive marker. This study aimed to assess the potential of three factors—neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR)—as inflammatory markers of bone mineral density (BMD) loss. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 450 postmenopausal Omani women undergoing dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, Muscat, Oman, from January 2017 to December 2019. The participants were allocated to groups based on lumbar spine BMD t-score values. A receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the area under the curve (AUC). Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify independent predictors of low BMD. Results: A total of 65 (14.4%), 164 (36.4%) and 221 (49.1%) women were allocated to the control, osteopenia and osteoporosis groups, respectively. No significant differences in PLR, MLR and NLR values were observed among the groups. BMD t-score values were reversely correlated with age (P = 0.007) and PLR (P = 0.004) and positively correlated with body mass index (BMI; P 65 years) and BMI (