Association of inflammatory markers with ovulatory dysfunction in women with polycystic ovary syndrome = Association of inflammatory markers with ovulatory dysfunction in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objective: Increased neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are associated with the low-grade chronic inflammation and metabolic dysfunction. In previous studies, NLR and PLR were shown to increase in women with PCOS compared to healthy control. C-reactive protein (CRP) is also an inflammatory marker found to be an independent predictor of future CVD in women with PCOS. However, PCOS can be classified according to the ovulatory function and the subtypes have different manifestations. We aimed to investigate the distribution of NLR, PLR and CRP in women with PCOS according to the ovulatory function.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study included a total of 389 patients diagnosed with PCOS by Rotterdam criteria between January 2016 and March 2019. All subjects were evaluated for ovulatory function by serum progesterone (P4) or basal body temperature (BBT). Ovulatory PCOS was defined as either serum P4 ≥3 ng/ml or biphasic BBT pattern. Clinical and laboratory parameters, NLR, PLR and CRP were compared according to the ovulatory function in women with PCOS by using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).
Results: Among 389 women with PCOS, 67.4% were PCOS patients with ovulatory dysfunction. Age, body mass index (BMI), testosterone, free androgen index, NLR, PLR and CRP were not different between the women with anovulatory PCOS and ovulatory PCOS (23.7 vs. 24.8, p=0.082; 22.3 vs. 22.3, p=0.941; 0.61 vs. 0.55, p=0.141; 5.7 vs. 4.4, p=0.078; 1.7 vs. 1.8, p=0.153; 7.8 vs. 8.5, p=0.178; 0.17 vs. 0.19, p=0.773, respectively). After controlling for age and BMI, NLR, PLR and CRP in PCOS patients with ovulatory dysfunction did not differ from those without ovulatory dysfunction (1.67 vs. 1.88, p=0.113; 7.85 vs. 8.51, p=0.144; 0.16 vs. 0.20, p=0.534, respectively).
Conclusion: In women with PCOS, markers for subclinical inflammation including PLR, NLR and CRP were not different between the patients with ovulatory dysfunction and those without ovulatory dysfunction.