Total leukocyte count, leukocyte subsets and their indexes in relation to cardiovascular risk in adolescent population

A. Klisic, I. Radoman Vujačić, L.J. Vučković, A. Ninic

Center for Laboratory Diagnostics, Primary Health Care Center, University of Montenegro-Faculty of Medicine, Podgorica, Montenegro. aleksandranklisic@gmail.com

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• Cardiology

OBJECTIVE: No studies investigated total leukocytes, their subpopulations and novel indexes based on different ratios of leukocyte subsets concerning cardiovascular risk (CV) risk in late adolescents. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore such potential relationships.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 156 adolescents were included. CV risk score was calculated by summarizing each risk factor (i.e., female sex, low high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), high non-HDL-c, smoking, blood pressure, and fasting glycemia). Adolescents were divided into a low CV risk score (i.e., -2≤ CV risk score ≤1) and moderate/higher CV risk score (i.e., CV risk score ≥ 2). White blood cell count (WBC) and its subsets were analyzed on an automatic device. The indexes were calculated.

RESULTS: Total and differential WBC counts except basophil count were higher in moderate/higher CV risk participants. Multivariate binary regression analysis showed that total WBC count independently increased CV risk score by 1.623 times (p=0.001). Neutrophil and eosinophil counts (p=0.027 and p=0.010, respectively) were independently able to increase CV risk score by 1.486 and 1.556 times, respectively. On the contrary, indexes were not independently correlated with CV risk.

CONCLUSIONS: WBC, neutrophil, and eosinophil count are the independent predictors of increased CV risk in adolescents. The associations may indicate the different pathways that lead to CV disease in adulthood.

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