Objective:

Osteoporosis is a chronic disease that is prevalent in older adults and characterized by an imbalance between bone formation and destruction. Recently, many studies have been conducted to reveal the relationship between inflammation and osteoporosis. Monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been shown to be predictive factors for disease activity, prognosis and survival in various inflammatory and malignant diseases. We aimed to determine whether there is a relationship between inflammatory markers and severity of osteoporosis.

Materials and Methods:

The mean age of 1048 patients included in the study was 72.7 ± 6.7 years and 87.9% were female. Osteoporosis was diagnosed by Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) at the lumbar spine and left femur. Inflammation was assessed by blood tests including MLR, NLR, C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and uric acid.

Results:

MLR, NLR, ESR, and the proportion of female gender were higher in the lowest T score group. MLR and NLR were found to be independently related to severity of osteoporosis according to the multivariate binary logistic regression analysis (p=0.032, OR=3.513, and p=0.046, OR=1.218, respectively).

Conclusion:

In our study, we revealed the relationship between osteoporosis and inflammation through different inflammatory parameters. We have shown that the two easily accessible parameters, MLR and NLR, may help evaluate the bone mineral density in elderly osteoporotic individuals.

Keywords: Osteoporosis, monocyte to lymphocyte ratio, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, inflammation, older adults