Correlation between the neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio and enlarged perivascular spaces in type 2 diabetes mellitus

ABSTRACT Aims To determine the relationship between the neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio and enlarged perivascular spaces in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials and Methods Cranial magnetic resonance imaging data from 200 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were analyzed to categorize enlarged perivascular spaces in the basal ganglia and centrum semiovale (CSO) by severity. Mild and moderate‐to‐severe enlarged perivascular spaces groups were compared. Results The neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was notably elevated in the moderate‐to‐severe group compared with the mild group, for both basal ganglia (BG) (P < 0.01) and CSO (P < 0.01) enlarged perivascular spaces. Spearman analyses demonstrated strong positive correlations between the NLR and the severity of both BG (r = 0.545, P < 0.001) and CSO (r = 0.440, P < 0.001) enlarged perivascular spaces. Binary logistic regression analysis identified the NLR as an independent risk factor for BG (P < 0.01) and CSO (P < 0.01) enlarged perivascular spaces in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis demonstrated that the NLR had an area under the curve of 0.824 for predicting moderate‐to‐severe BG enlarged perivascular spaces and 0.768 for predicting moderate‐to‐severe CSO enlarged perivascular spaces. Conclusions The NLR independently predicts moderate‐to‐severe BG and CSO enlarged perivascular spaces in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and exhibits diagnostic accuracy for cerebral small vessel disease.