Correlation between Neutrophil-Lymphocyte-Ratio (NLR) and Clinical Severity in Acute Odontogenic Infection Patients

Introduction: Patients with facial space infections originating from odontogenic infections are at risk of experiencing life-threatening complications. Quantitative determination of serum markers can help determine the severity of odontogenic infections. Markers that have recently been introduced into clinical practice are associated with high costs which are a major limitation. Conversely, NLR is a cheap and easy to obtain parameter that does not require special equipment for NLR measurements. Neutrophils respond quickly to microbial infections and result in a drastic increase in the number of circulating neutrophils that migrate to the infected area. Conversely, an increase in lymphocyte apoptosis will result in a decrease in inflammatory effectors as well as immunosuppression. Purposes: The study was conducted to analyze the correlation between NLR and clinical severity scale of odontogenic infection patient, and to determine the difference in the value of NLR and CSS on day 0 and day 3. Methods: This study used a prospective Cohort research method in 29 acute odontogenic infections patients who came to the RSHS ED and met the inclusion criteria. Sampling was done twice, namely on day 0 (T1) and day 3 (T2). The research variabels that were measured were NLR values obtained through hematologic examinations of 35 parameters, and clinical severity by summing the scores in the CSS tabel. The data obtained were then carried out by the Spearman correlation test analysis to see the correlation between the NLR and CSS values and a t-test was performed to see the differences in the NLR and CSS variabel values on T1 and T2. Result: The results of the analysis using the Spearman Correlation Test show that there is a correlation between NLR and clinical severity in patients with acute odontogenic infections. On T1 the value of NLR with clinical severity has a positive correlation with the strength of moderate correlation which is statistically significant with r = 0.5 and p