High Values of the Leukocyte Glycemic Index Are Associated with Symptomatic Systemic Atherosclerotic Disease in Young Patients
Catégorie d'article: Original Research
Publié en ligne: 01 juil. 2025
Pages: 54 - 60
Reçu: 03 nov. 2024
Accepté: 16 avr. 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jce-2025-0006
Mots clés
© 2025 Mircea Cătălin Coșarcă et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Background
Peripheral artery disease (PAD), traditionally affecting older adults, is increasingly diagnosed in younger patients, highlighting the need for early, non-invasive biomarkers such as the leukocyte glycemic index (LGI) that reflect the inflammatory mechanisms driving atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to determine whether the LGI can be associated with the presence of symptomatic atherosclerotic disease on patients under 45 years.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective observational study, enrolling all patients under the age of 45 years who were admitted to the Department of Vascular Surgery of Targu Mures County Emergency Clinical Hospital between January 2019 and May 2024. Patients were categorized into two groups based on the presence or absence of systemic atherosclerosis.
Results
Patients with systemic atherosclerosis had a higher incidence of cerebrovascular events (p = 0.006) and ischemic heart disease (p = 0.038), as well as elevated counts of white blood cells (WBCs) (p = 0.003), platelets (p = 0.038), neutrophils (p = 0.002), monocytes (p = 0.024), lymphocytes (p = 0.01), and LGI (p = 0,006). At the receiver operating characteristics analysis, we observed a significant correlation between the baseline values of the LGI and systemic atherosclerosis (p = 0.004). The area under the curve (AUC) was determined to be 0.707, with an optimal cut-off value established at 0.683, resulting in a sensitivity of 79.2% and a specificity of 60.6%. Additionally, elevated baseline values for platelets (OR 2.18; p = 0.017), WBCs (OR 2.06; p = 0.020), neutrophils (OR 2.75; p = 0.004), lymphocytes (OR 2.47; p = 0.021), monocytes (OR 2.03; p = 0.021), and LGI (OR 2.90; p = 0.024) were also identified as predictive factors of systemic atherosclerosis.
Conclusions
Elevated values of LGI are associated with the presence of symptomatic atherosclerotic disease in patients under 45 years.