Association of inflammation and abnormal lipid metabolism with risk of thrombosis and thrombosis progression in patients with polycythemia vera: a retrospective study

To date, no therapeutic strategy has been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of polycythemia vera (PV) transforming into myelofibrosis or leukemia, and the main goal of current treatment is to prevent thrombotic events. Recent studies have shown that higher levels of inflammation are associated with an increased risk of thrombosis in PV patients, while the correlation between inflammation and abnormal lipid metabolism with the risk of thrombosis in PV has not been reported. In this retrospective study, 148 patients with newly diagnosed PV who visited the Affiliated Hospitals of Nanchang University from January 2013 to June 2023 were categorized into low-risk group and high-risk group according to the risk of thrombosis, and were subsequently divided into thrombosis non-progression group and progression group. The differences of novel inflammatory markers PHR, NHR, MHR, LHR, and SIRI in each group were analyzed and compared with healthy adults who underwent physical examination in the hospitals during the same period. The results showed that PHR, NHR, MHR, and SIRI levels were significantly higher in the PV group than in the control group (P < 0.001), while HDL-C levels were considerably lower (1.09 vs. 1.31, P < 0.001). Comparisons within the groups of PV patients revealed that PHR, MHR, NHR, NLR, and SIRI levels were significantly higher in the high-risk group for thrombosis than in the low-risk group (P < 0.01); the thrombosis PHR, NHR, NLR, and SIRI levels were higher in the group with progression of thrombosis than in the group without progression of thrombosis (P < 0.05), while HDL-C levels were significantly lower (1.02 vs. 1.12, P < 0.001). The results of the ROC curve analysis showed that NHR (AUC = 0.791), HDL-C (AUC = 0.691), PHR (AUC = 0.668), NLR(AUC = 0.658), and SIRI (AUC = 0.638) had high diagnostic efficacy for identifying PV patients with thrombosis progression. Multivariate analysis showed that NHR, NLR, MHR, and LHR were independent risk factors for PV patients with thrombosis progression (P < 0.05). Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that NHR ≥ 5.82 × 10(9)/mmol, NLR ≥ 6.295, PHR ≥ 280.4 × 10(9)/mmol, MHR ≥ 0.295 × 10(9)/mmol, LHR ≥ 1.41 × 10(9)/mmol, and SIRI ≥ 1.53 × 10(9)/L were risk factors for PFS in PV patients. The study demonstrates for the first time that novel inflammatory markers PHR, NHR, MHR, LHR, and SIRI may be used as new predictors for PV patients with thrombosis progression. NHR has the highest value in predicting thrombosis in PV patients and is superior to NLR which was reported previously.