Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Erythropoietin Resistance among Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients.

INTRODUCTION: Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are recent prognostic biomarkers associated with inflammation. Increased erythropoiesis resistance index (ERI) may predict the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in hemodialysis (HD) patients. However, the roles of NLR and PLR in erythropoietin (EPO) responsiveness remain unclear in HD patients. This study aims to investigate the relationship between NLR and PLR and EPO responsiveness in maintenance HD patients. METHODS: A total of 299 HD patients were included in this survey. Laboratory data and demographic details were collected. EPO responsiveness was evaluated by ERI. Pearson correlation analysis and logistic regressions were conducted to evaluate the factors that may be associated with EPO responsiveness. RESULTS: The EPO responsiveness was positively related to ferritin and negatively related to serum albumin, lymphocytes, and hemoglobin. A multivariate linear regression revealed that only NLR (standardized ß = 0.13, p = 0.024) but not PLR (standardized ß = 0.107, p = 0.063) was correlated with a higher ERI. CONCLUSION: A higher NLR level was shown to be a cheaper method to predict worse EPO responsiveness in HD patients.