Monocyte to High‐density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Ratio (MHR) as a Predictor of the Activity of Thyroid-associated Ophthalmopathy (TAO)

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between monocyte to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio(MHR) and the disease activity of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy(TAO). Methods A total of 87 subjects were classified into two groups based on clinical activity score(CAS) scoring criteria: high CAS group (n = 62, the CAS score was ≥ 3); low CAS group (n = 25, the CAS score was < 3). In addition, we included a group of healthy people (n = 114) to compared the MHR. Proptosis, MHR, average signal intensity ratio (SIR), average lacrimal gland (LG)-SIR, average extraocular muscles (EOM) area from 87 patients with TAO were calculated in magnetic resonance imaging(MRI), and compared between these two groups. Correlation testing was utilized to evaluate the association of parameters among the clinical variables. Results Patients in high CAS group had a higher proptosis (p = 0.041 < 0.05) and MHR (p = 0.048 < 0.05). Compared to the healthy group ,the MHR in the TAO group was higher(p = 0.001 < 0.05).Correlation testing declared that CAS score was strongly associated with proptosis and average SIR, and MHR was positively associated with CAS score, average SIR, and average LG-SIR. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of MHR was 0.6755. Conclusion This study identifies MHR, which is a novel inflammatory biomarker that has a significant association with CAS score and MRI imaging (average SIR and LG-SIR). These results support that MHR can be a new promising predictor during the active phase of TAO.