Abstract

Background:Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) is a fatal infectious disease and remains a major global health problem especially in undeveloped countries. Delay in diagnosis and treatment may cause worsening of the disease, increasing the risk of mortality and easily spreading. This investigation aims to explore the correlation between inflammatory markers extracted from complete blood count (CBC) including red cell distribution width (RDW), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, RDW to platelet count ratio (RPR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and other inflammatory markers with active PTB disease. These biomarkers are easily accessible in least possible time and low facility centers even in undeveloped regions to detect inflammation.Method:This is a retrospective cohort study. Recorded laboratory and clinical data of 45 diagnosed PTB patients hospitalized in Tohid Hospital (Sanandaj, Iran) were gathered by scanning the records from September 2013 to February 2017. Forty-five age-matched and sex-matched healthy individuals were included as controls. All CBC tests were done by Sysmex KX21N. All Leukocyte differential counts were done by blinded skilled hematologist.Results:PTB patients had a significantly higher RPR values compared with control group (0.041 versus 0.058, P = 0.0001). Neutrophil counts, RDW, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and C-reactive protein values were also higher in patient with active PTB opposed to control group.Conclusion:RPR is a novel useful inflammatory marker easily done and calculated from a routine CBC report which can be used as a supportive available markers to help the management of patients suffering from active PTB. The inclusion of RPR in all CBC reports is recommended. © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health. All rights reserved.