Relationship between cigarette smoking and chronic spontaneous urticaria. Is there a difference in neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio?

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is defined as the appearance of itchy wheals and/or angioedema for at least 6 weeks. Cigarette smoking is one of the world's most common addictions. It is a cause of serious diseases such as renal cancer or thromboembolic incidents. Nevertheless, some studies show that nicotine might have a protective effect on various autoimmune diseases. The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a good marker of inflammation.

Aim: To check the prevalence of smokers in our CSU patients and to assess their profile of NLR as a marker of inflammation.

Material and methods: 68 adult patients were included (52 females, and 16 males). The average age of respondents was 52. All of the patients were diagnosed with CSU. The group was divided by gender and smoking. The Mann-Whitney U test (Statistica ver.13) was used.

Results: 73.5% of the respondents were non-smokers, and the remaining 26.5% were smokers. In the female group, irrespective of smoking, statistically significant different levels of neutrophils (NEU), lymphocytes (LYM), and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were found compared to males. No statistical difference was found between smokers and non-smokers regarding the level of inflammatory factors. Compared to males, females had significantly different levels of LYM in the group of non-smokers and NEU in the group of smokers.

Conclusions: Our study does not support claims that smoking has a protective effect on CSU. Significant differences in NEU, LYM, and NLR need to be further investigated.