The role of immature granulocytes and inflammatory hemogram indices in the inflammation

INTRODUCTION: In this retrospective study, we aimed to assess the role of immature granulocyte percentage (IG%), inflammatory complete blood count (CBC) parameters and indices in investigating the severity of inflammation, to evaluate their correlation, and to determine their predictive ability in classifying inflammation.
METHODS: We obtained hematological and biochemical data of the 161 outpatients for this study. Patients were assigned to three groups according to their C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Group I had a CRp-value of <3 mg/L (non-inflammatory group) (n=58), Group II had a CRP level between 3 to 9mg/L (low-grade inflammatory group) (n=59), and Group III had a CRP level of >9mg/L (clinically significant inflammatory group)(n=44). The between-group differences were evaluated concerning sex, age, CRP, procalcitonin, IG%, CBC parameters and indices, including Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR), Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) and Systemic Immune-Inflammatory Index (SII).
RESULTS: In Group II, the levels of CRP (p<0.0001), platelet count (p<0.05), PLR (p<0.05), NLR (p<0.05) and SII (p<0.01) were significantly higher than those in the Group I. In Group III, CRP (p<0.0001), IG% (p<0.0001), procalcitonin (p<0.01), platelet count (p<0.05), PLR (p<0.01), NLR (p<0.05) and SII (p<0.01) values showed a significant between-group difference when compared to Group I. A significant difference between Group II and Group III was detected for, CRP (p<0.0001) and IG% (p<0.05). There were significant positive correlations among IG% and CRP (p<0.001), platelet count (p<005), PLR (p<0.05) and SII (<0.05). The sensitivity and specificity values of the IG% using a cut-off value of >0.2 were 75.3% and 52.5%, respectively.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The findings obtained in this study suggest that to detect the severity of inflammation, it would be more reliable to evaluate the combination of CBC parameters with biochemical markers instead of looking at a single one.