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Research Paper|Volume 17, Issue 3|pp 863—871

Prognostic potential of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio for appendicular skeletal muscle mass reduction in males aged 70 and older

Ying-Jen Chen1,2,5, Chieh-Li Yen1,2,5, Chern-Horng Lee1,2,5, Kuo-Chen Liao1,2,5, Ji-Tseng Fang3,5, Tz-Shiu Tsai1,2, Yi-Ching Chen2, Chun-Yen Lin4,5
  • 1Geriatric Medical Center, Linkou Medical Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
  • 2Department of Geriatrics and General Internal Medicine, Linkou Medical Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
  • 3Department of Nephrology, Linkou Medical Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
  • 4Division of Hepatology, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Linkou Medical Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan
  • 5College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
Received: April 22, 2024Accepted: January 10, 2025Published: March 6, 2025
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206217

Copyright: © 2025 Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Inflammation plays a pivotal role in the age-related decline of skeletal muscle mass, leading to sarcopenia in the elderly. The prevalence of sarcopenia notably increases among males aged ≥ 70. However, it remains unclear whether inflammatory indexes are associated with the reduction in skeletal muscle mass in the elderly population.

Thirty-one males aged ≥ 70, without severe diseases or dementia, were enrolled in the study. They underwent muscle mass measurements, physical measurements, and hematological tests at the onset of the study and after a one-year follow-up.

Twenty-eight participants were successfully followed for one year. Appendicular skeletal muscle mass index (ASMI) decreased by 3.30 ± 2.41% in 14 participants and increased by 2.66 ± 1.61% in the other 14 participants compared to baseline levels. The baseline neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was 2.14 ± 0.56 in the ASMI-decreased group and 1.66 ± 0.62 in the ASMI-increased group. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between baseline NLR and the change in ASMI in linear regression analyses. The area under the curve (AUC) of the baseline NLR for predicting ASMI decline was 0.724, with an optimal sensitivity of 64.3% and specificity of 78.6% at a cut-off value of 1.94.

NLR emerged as a potential prognostic marker for ASMI reduction in elderly males. However, further studies are necessary to assess its clinical utility.