The following is a summary of “Association between triglyceride-glucose index and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and all-cause mortality in the general US population: NHANES 2001-2018,” published in the November 2024 issue of Endocrinology by Wang et al.    

The triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, calculated from fasting triglycerides (TG) and fasting blood glucose (FBG), and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), an inflammation marker derived from complete blood counts (CBC), have uncertain associations with all-cause mortality in the general population.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to explore the association of the TyG index and a combined TyG-NLR index with all-cause mortality.  

They analyzed data from 15,388 participants from the U.S. general population in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 2001–2018). The TyG index was calculated using fasting TG and FBG, while the TyG-NLR index was derived by multiplying the TyG index by the NLR. Using weighted Cox proportional hazards models, researchers evaluated mortality risks. Restricted cubic splines (RCS) were applied to assess dose-response relationships between the indices and mortality over a median follow-up of 118 months.  

The results showed that during the follow-up period, 2,333 participants died. After adjusting for confounders, no significant association was found between the TyG index and all-cause mortality. However, participants in the highest quartile of the TyG-NLR index had a 63% higher risk of all-cause mortality than those in the lowest quartile (HR 1.63, 95% CI 1.33–2.00).  

They concluded that higher TyG-NLR index levels were significantly associated with increased all-cause mortality among individuals in the U.S. general population, whereas the TyG index alone was not.  

Source: frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2024.1513543/abstract