Objective:

Coronary artery abnormalities (CAA) are critical complication of Kawasaki disease (KD). Several inflammatory biomarkers have been identified for occurrence and progression of KD. Discovering new biomarkers of inflammation becomes important in order to help diagnostic accuracy of CAA and to provide prognostic information for KD. LMR, are simple and inexpensive methods for assessing inflammation, which have been also investigated as predictors of several cancers, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. In this study we aimed to investigate whether LMR is a risk factor of CAA of KD.

Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed patients with KD from 2005 to 2016. Demographic features, diagnostic clinical features of KD, laboratory findings, complications were recorded prior to IVIG administration. The patients were divided into two groups according to the development of CAA. The LMR was calculated by dividing the number of lymphocytes by the number of monocytes in the peripheral blood count. To identify CAAs risk factors, and to exclude the possible influence of other variables, multivariate analysis was performed by entering significant variables from the univariate analyses.

Results:

LMR was significantly lower in patients with CAA comparison to the patients without CAA (p<0.05). LMR was found as the only independent variable in multivariate analysis to determine CAA.

Conclusion:

The findings of this study showed a relationship between lower LMR and a high risk of CAA in children with KD. We suppose that LMR can be used as a predictor of coronary arter involvement in KD as a readily available and inexpensive marker in clinical practice.

Keywords: Coronary artery abnormalities, Kawasaki disease, lymphocyte:monocyte ratio, inflammatory biomarkers