Association between NLR and COVID-19.

We read with great interest the article recently published by Yang et al entitled “The diagnostic and predictive role of NLR, d-NLR and PLR in COVID-19 patients.” [1].

In this manuscript, the authors state that neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and advanced age can be used as independent biomarkers for indicating poor clinical outcomes. In this study, the mean age of the patients with severe clinical symptoms was 57.9 ± 11.8 years, and the mean age of non-severe patients was 42.1 ± 18.6 years. Age, is a parameter that affects NLR outcome [2]. In this study, we wonder whether NLR values were evaluated taking age into consideration. In addition, body mass index (BMI), physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption and gender are the factors that may have an impact on NLR values [3]. We believe that these factors may have an effect on the results of the study.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Serdar Kalemci: Conceptualization.