Assessment of Serum Vitamin Levels, Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio, and Platelet-Lymphocyte Ratio in Patients with Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis

Abstract

Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is a common mucosal disease. Vitamin deficiencies and inflammatory factors are the etiologic causes; however, the relationship between these causes and the disease remains controversial. In this study, we aimed to compare the serum vitamin and inflammatory markers levels (neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-lymphocyte ratio, and mean platelet volume), in patients with RAS versus healthy controls. We performed a retrospective case-control study. The medical records of 81 patients with RAS and 69 healthy controls who presented to the dermatology clinic and whose neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), mean platelet volume, serum iron, ferritin, iron-binding capacity, folic acid, and vitamin B12 levels were examined in the clinic were retrospectively reviewed and compared. The laboratory data of the participants were analyzed using the SPSS version 24.0 software. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. There were 81 patients with RAS in the study group and 69 age- and sex-matched healthy individuals in the control group. The mean serum vitamin B12 level was significantly higher in patients with RAS than in healthy controls (p = 0.016). The serum iron level was lower in patients with minor and herpetiform aphthae than in patients with major aphthae (p = 0.042), whereas NLR and PLR were higher in patients with minor aphthae compared with the other groups. NLR was lower in patients with RAS than in the healthy controls (p = 0.013). This study showed that vitamin deficiency does not play a role in the etiology of aphthae and inflammatory activity is not prominent in patients with RAS with normal hematologic status. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature.