Blood Inflammatory Biomarkers in Participants with Idiopathic Epiretinal Membranes Running Title: Blood Biomarkers for iERM

Abstract Purpose: To evaluate the levels of monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in patients with Idiopathic Epiretinal Membrane (iERM). Methods:This retrospective study comprised of participants with iERM and participants with cataract. The values of MLR, NLR, PLR and from participants’ peripheral blood were assessed among groups. The best cutoff value of MLR, NLR, and PLR in iERM was found by performing a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and determining the optimum cutoff value for each variable. Results: In total, 95 participants with iERM were included in the study group, and 61 participants with senile cataract were included as controls. The lymphocyte count in the iERM group was significantly lower than the control group (1.69±0.63 vs. 1.95±0.53, p=0.003). The monocyte count in the iERM group was significantly higher thanthe control group (0.39±0.11 vs. 0.31±0.10, p<0.001). The area under the curve of MLR, NLR and PLR in differentiating patients with IERM and controls was 0.782, 0.645, and 0.657, respectively, according to ROC. The best cut-off value of MLR was >0.18, with sensitivity and specificity of 74.7% and 75.4% respectively. The NLR was >2.06, with a sensitivity and specificity of 50.5% and 83.6% respectively. The PLR was >95.89, with a sensitivity and specificity of 86.3% and 41.0% respectively. Conclusion:The findings of this study suggest that systemic inflammation may be associated with iERM. IERM patients may be prone to have high MLR, NLR and PLR values.