Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio correlates with mild cognitive impairment and the hippocampal atrophy

Background: and Aim: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the intermediate stage of a transitional phase from cognitive changes of normal aging to dementia. The gold standard for diagnosing MCI using cerebro-spinal fluid(CSF) and MRI is either invasive or expensive. Thus, using simple indicators is in urgent need. Research Design: In this research, we included 610 patients in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database (http://adni.loni.usc.edu) to discuss the correlation of platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) with MCI and hippocampal atrophy. Methods and Results We used a correlation test to show that higher PLR levels significantly correlated with hippocampal volume loss and less cognitive function scale score. We used univariate linear regression to show that PLR level significantly correlated with hippocampal volume. We also used multivariate linear regression to show that PLR level, APOE gene, gender, and age could form a linear regression model to predict patients’ hippocampal volume. Discussion and Conclusion: Our research suggested that peripheral immune markers may replace CSF and imaging test results and may provide a measure for initial screening of the MCI and hippocampal atrophy and provide new insights into the prevention and treatment of MCI.