Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) is a sensitive and specific biomarker in indicating an inflammation caused by bacterial infection. NLR is considered to be a better marker as it has stronger discriminative power for predicting bacteremia compared to discrimination based on an increase in the number of neutrophils or a decrease in the number of lymphocytes alone. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious
disease that remains a major problem in human health aspects in the world. This study aimed to investigate the role of NLR in discriminating pulmonary TB from non- TB. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 59 people with pulmonary TB and 155 healthy people (non-TB). Comparative analysis of the data showed that the
median value of NLR in pulmonary TB (3,38 (0,94 – 22,27)) was significantly higher than non-TB (1,60 (1,09 – 3,27)) with p < 0,001. NLR was found to have a role in discriminating pulmonary TB from non-TB with the cut-off point of 1,985 (sensitivity 78%, specificity 73,5%, positive predictive value 52,9%, negative predictive value 89,8%, accuracy 74,8% and area under the curve (AUC) 87,2%), hence the NLR value =1,985 is considered to be pulmonary TB positive. |