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Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate and compare with healthy control subjects the levels of indirect inflammatory markers such as mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in adults and children with brucellosis., Methods: White blood cell, neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet counts, and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were retrospectively recorded for all participants., Results: NLR and neutrophil counts were significantly higher in adult patients compared to those in pediatric patients., Conclusions: Indirect inflammatory markers such as NLR, PLR, MPV, red distribution width, and CRP levels may be helpful for follow-up of brucellosis.

Background: As a multisystem infectious disease, there is an inflammation, which causes increase in acute phase reactants in brucellosis. The mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), red cell distribution width (RDW), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) have been identified as markers of inflammation. The present study aimed to evaluate diagnostic values of these biomarkers in brucella arthritis (BA)., Methods: The study included 64 children with BA and 66 healthy control subjects. Demographic features, joint involvement, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP) and hematological variables were retrospectively recorded. In addition, results of synovial fluid and serum tube agglutination test for brucella together with treatment regimens were recorded., Results: The mean age of the patients (53.1 % male) was 92.3 ± 41.2 months. The most commonly affected joint was ankle (53.1 %). Synovial fluid puncture-brucella agglutination test was positive in 22 (34.3 %) patients. Puncture culture was positive in 9 patients. Most of the patients (57.8 %) were treated with a combination of rifampicin plus sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim and gentamicin. Significantly higher mean PDW, RDW, MPV, NLR and PLR values were found in children with BA compared to control subjects (p < 0.05). A positive correlation was found between MPV and NLR values (R (2) = 0.192, p < 0.001)., Conclusion: Our findings indicated that NLR and PLR are indirect markers of inflammation that may be observed abnormally increased in children with brucella arthritis. Further longitudinal studies are needed to investigate this topic to establish the more clear associations.

Unlabelled: Vasculitis in childhood is a result of a spectrum of causes ranging from idiopathic conditions with primary vessel inflammation to syndromes after exposure to recognized antigenic triggers, such as infectious agents and drugs causing hypersensitivity reactions. Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) is the most common vasculitis of childhood. Although there is often a history of a recent or simultaneous upper respiratory tract infection, no consistent causative organism is found. We report an 11-year old boy with HSP and brucellosis and we speculated that brucellosis was the trigger agent for HSP (Ref. 13)., Keywords: brucellosis, trigger agent, Henoch-Schönlein purpura, vasculitis, infectious agents, drug, hypersensitivity reactions, primary vessel inflammation.