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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.

Sec. Inflammation Pharmacology

The Clinical Value of PLR, NLR, and MLR in Predicting Mortality Risk in Hospitalized Patients

Provisionally accepted
Guoxiang  FangGuoxiang Fang1Yunfei  MoYunfei Mo1Yangwen  BaoYangwen Bao1Chunbiao  GaoChunbiao Gao2Qiuya  PanQiuya Pan2Tongbo  LuTongbo Lu1*
  • 1Changzhou Dean Hospital, Changzhou, China
  • 2Changzhou Children's Hospital of Nantong University, Changzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: To analyze the trends and clinical significance of the platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and monocyte/lymphocyte ratio (MLR) in hospitalized patients prior to death. Method: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the PLR, NLR, and MLR of 341 hospitalized patients prior to death from January 2016 to October 2020 at Changzhou De’an Hospital, using inpatients with kidney disease and patients in rehabilitation as case-control groups, and hospital staff as a healthy control group, to statistically analyze relevant clinical data and test results. Results: Significant differences were observed in the PLR, NLR, and MLR prior to death in hospitalized patients compared to those with kidney disease, those in recovery, and the healthy control group (P < 0.05). No statistically significant differences were found among different genders and age groups. The PLR, NLR, and MLR showed significant correlations with potential mortality risk, and middle-to-high performance in discriminating mortality events with area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.690, 0.866, 0.833 respectively for independent indicators. The PLR, NLR, and MLR significantly increased within 4 weeks, 1 week, and 48 hours before death (P < 0.05). As the condition fluctuates, the PLR, NLR, and MLR exhibit fluctuating changes. The NLR was significantly higher in patients with malignant tumors and severe infections compared to those with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and the sudden death group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The PLR, NLR, and MLR significantly associate with mortality risk in hospitalized patients, and could serve as important identification parameters for mortality.

Keywords: Platelet/lymphocyte ratio, Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, Monocyte/lymphocyte ratio, Hospitalized patients Mortality, mortality risk

Received: 31 Oct 2025; Accepted: 20 Nov 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Fang, Mo, Bao, Gao, Pan and Lu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Tongbo Lu, lutbmed@163.com

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