Abstract

Objective:
We aimed at contributing to the understanding of the pathophysiology of Fibromyalgia (FM) by measuring neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), which are the systemic inflammatory response (SIR) markers in patients with fibromyalgia.

Method:
The study population consisted of 70 patients newly diagnosed with FM (mean (SD) age: 43.9 (±9.8) years, 80% were female) and 52 healthy volunteers (mean (SD) age: 43.4 (±10.4) years, 76.9% were female). American College of Rheumatology-ACR 1990 criteria regarding the evaluation of widespread pain and tender points were used for the diagnosis of FM. Demographic characteristics, anthropometrics and laboratory findings were used to make comparisons between patient and control groups.

Results:
PLR was 128.0 (±40.2) in the patient group while it was 110.5 (±33.6) in the control group and the difference was found to be significant (p=0.03). NLR was similar in both groups. The tender point count was significantly higher in the patient group (p<0.001) whereas there was a negative correlation between the tender point count and the lymphocyte count (r= -0.200; p=0.020) and a strong positive correlation with PLR (r=0.022; p=0.001).

Conclusion:
Our findings indicate that NLR levels were similar in both groups while the PLR values of the FM patients were found to be significantly higher than those of the control group and there was a positive correlation between PLR and the tender point count.