Longdong Xu,1 Tingting Guo,2 Xihua Sheng,2 Huaping Du,2 Ying Tang2 

1Department of Neurology, Changshu NO.5 People’s Hospital, Changshu, Jiangsu, 215500, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology, Suzhou Ninth People’s Hospital, Suzhou Ninth Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215200, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Ying Tang; Huaping Du, Department of Neurology, Suzhou Ninth People’s Hospital, Suzhou Ninth Hospital Affiliated to Soochow University, No. 2666, Ludang Road, Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 512-82881179 ; +86 512-82885052, Email l5850213093@126.com; duhuaping226@126.com

Objective: This study aims to investigate the prognostic value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in patients with idiopathic facial nerve palsy.
Methods: The clinical data of patients with idiopathic facial nerve palsy were retrospectively analyzed. After three months of follow-up, patients were divided into good prognosis and poor prognosis, and the correlation between NLR, CRP and idiopathic facial nerve palsy was analyzed.
Results: Negative correlation of NLR with Portmann score in idiopathic facial nerve palsy (r=− 0.788, P< 0.05); In contrast to the group with poor prognosis, patients in good prognosis group had low levels of body mass index (BMI), NLR, and C-reactive protein (CRP), and high Portmann score (P< 0.05); Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed Portmann score (OR=1.268, 95% CI (1.005– 1.616)), NLR (OR=0.262, 95% CI (0.128– 0.533)) and CRP levels (OR=0.949, 95% CI (0.895– 0.989)) were risk factors of poor prognosis for patients with idiopathic facial nerve palsy. The area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve of NLR and CRP levels in predicting poor facial nerve function was 0.764 and 0.697, the specificity was 85.5% and 75.0%, and the sensitivity was 74. 0% and 76.0%, respectively. The ROC curve of the combined diagnosis was 0.829, the specificity was 80.7%, and the sensitivity was 82.0%.
Conclusion: Elevated NLR and CRP are associated with a poor prognosis of idiopathic facial nerve palsy and can serve as an indicator for clinical prognosis, and can be widely used in clinical.

Keywords: idiopathic facial nerve palsy, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, C-reactive protein, predictive value