Increased neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio as a possible marker to detect neuroinflammation in patients with narcolepsy type 1

Narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) is an autoimmune disease caused by the selective attack of orexin-producing neurons. However, the pathophysiology of narcolepsy type 2 (NT2) and idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) remains controversial. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is an easily calculated parameter from the white blood cell (WBC) count, which has already been extensively used as an inflammatory marker in immunological disorders. In this study, by examining the WBC counts of patients with NT1, NT2, and IH compared to controls, and evaluated the NLR to test the possibility of identifying an easy biofluid marker for detecting inflammation and distinguishing patients from healthy controls (HC).