Inflammatory markers of hemogram parameters as predictive factors for disease severity in anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the utility of inflammatory markers of hemogram parameters as objective indicators of disease severity in anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis.

Methods: A total of 98 patients were retrospectively reviewed. Inflammatory markers of hemogram parameters, including neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), and platelet-lymphocyte ratio, were acquired within 24 h of admission. We then analyzed their utility as predictive factors for disease severity at different time points assessing with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS).

Results: There were 49 patients in the mild group (mRS ≤ 2) and 49 patients in the moderate-to-severe (mRS > 2) group at admission. The moderate-to-severe group presented more frequently with psychiatric symptoms and central hypoventilation, as well as a lower lymphocyte count, a higher neutrophil count, a higher NLR and a higher MLR (all p < 0.05) when compared with the mild group. NLR and MLR showed similar positive correlations with mRS scores (r = 0.40, r = 0.40, both p < 0.001). Further multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that NLR > 4.232 was an independent risk factor for moderate-to-severe status at admission. Meanwhile, NLR and MLR were associated with disease severity at different stages of follow-up but showed no independent predictive value.

Conclusion: Our findings suggested that NLR was an independent risk factor for moderate-to-severe status in the initial stage of anti-NMDAR encephalitis with a cut-off value of > 4.232.