Journal of Clinical and Experimental Investigations

Abstract

Objective: Myocardial bridge (MB) is a congenital anomaly characterized by systolic narrowing of the epicardial coronary arterial segment while traveling in the myocardium. It is a benign entity but previous studies showed that the proximal portion is prone to an enhanced atherosclerosis. Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a sensitive marker of systemic inflammation used as a predictor for adverse cardiovascular outcomes in atherosclerotic heart disease. So in this study, we sought to evaluate the association between NLR and myocardial bridging.
Methods: A total of 172 patients (mean age: 50.8 ± 11.5 years, 77.3% men) with either angiographically proven MB or normal coronary arteries were included in the study. For the entire study population, hematologic parameters were measured using an automatic blood counter.
Results: The study population consisted of 71 patients with MB (mean age: 51.4 ± 11.9 years, 80.3% male) and 101 patients with normal coronary arteries (mean age: 50.5 ± 11.3 years, 75.2% male). There were no significant differences between groups regarding hemoglobin level, platelet count, glucose and creatinine. Compared to the control group, NLR was significantly higher in patients with MB (2.45 ± 1.19 vs. 1.72 ± 0.48; p< 0.001). In ROC analysis, NLR > 1.82 predicted myocardial bridge presence with 70% sensitivity and 71% specificity (ROC area under curve: 0.733, 95% CI: 0.654-0.811, p < 0.001).
Conclusion: Our study findings demonstrated that MB is associated with elevated NLR, which is used to assess inflammatory status of the body.