Many conditions may affect mean platelet volume and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio.

Dear Editor,

We read with great interest the article “Mean platelet volume and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in patients with tinnitus: a case-control study” by Yıldız et al. We would like to make some comment on this study.

Mean platelet volume (MPV) measurement technique is not specified in this study. It is known that variables such as anticoagulant use and the time between blood collection and measurement significantly affect MPV measurements. Many factors such as age, gender, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, metabolic syndrome and even the use of some antihypertensives affect the MPV. The existence of these conditions would certainly confuse the results and they should have been excluded from the study population.

Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been investigated in the pathogenesis and prognosis of many diseases, and many studies in the literature have found valuable results. Studies have shown that many factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, acute coronary syndromes, abnormal thyroid function tests, kidney or liver dysfunction, known malignancy, systemic infection, and drug use that may affect hematological parameters affect the NLR value.4, 5 For these reasons, it would have been better if the authors had mentioned these factors in the method section.

Consequently, NLR and MPV can be affected by many factors. The routine clinical use of these parameters may not yet be appropriate.

Conflicts of interest

The author declares no conflicts of interest.