Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio predicts short-term mortality in patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury

An easily accessible biomarker with good diagnostic power for patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) was needed to predict the short-term mortality. Studies have shown that platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is a biomarker for patients with tumor. This study aimed to identify the relationship between PLR and short-term mortality in patients with moderate to severe TBI. This is a retrospective cohort study. We selected patients with moderate to severe TBI who were admitted to the emergency department of The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. Biomarkers were collected within 24 h after admission. To investigate their relationship with short-term mortality, Cox proportional hazards regression and ROC curve analysis were performed. A total number of 170 patients was included. 47 (27.6%) patients had died and 123 (72.4%) patients were survived by the end of the study. Patients with different Rotterdam CT score (HR = 1.571, 95%CI 1.232–2.002, p < 0.001) or PLR levels (HR = 1.523, 95%CI 1.110–2.090, p = 0.009) had significant different mortality rates. The AUC curve analysis showed that the AUC of Rotterdam CT score and PLR groups were 0.729 (95%CI 0.638–0.821, p < 0.001) and 0.711 (95%CI 0.618–0.803 p < 0.001), respectively. PLR level is an independent biomarker with great diagnostic power for short-term mortality in patients with moderate to severe brain injury.