THE ROLE OF PLATELET-TO-LYMPHOCYTE RATIO IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF INFECTIOUS MONONU- CLEOSIS

YASEMIN ARDIÇOĞLU AKIŞIN¹, ZEYNEP NUR KARAGÖZ², MUSTAFA TURAN³, NEJAT AKAR⁴

¹Biochemistry, TOBB ETU Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey - ²4th Year Student, TOBB ETU Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey - ³Department of Medical Education, TOBB ETU Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey - ⁴Department of Pediatrics, TOBB ETU Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

Introduction: We investigated the use of Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR) which can be calculated by using platelet and lymphocyte counts from total blood count, for the diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis (IM).

Materials and methods: Out of 116 patients, 24 of them were diagnosed as IM with regard to serological tests and accepted as patient group. 40 healthy subjects were taken as control group. PLR values of the patient and control groups were calculated and cutoff values were determined using ROC Curve analysis.

Results: According to the study data, sensitivity and specificity of PLR value in diagnosing IM is 50% and 95%, respectively.

Conclusion: We concluded that low values of PLR can be used to give an idea about the existence of IM. However, high values of PLR may necessitate more evaluation for other differential diagnosis.