Relationship between trigeminal neuralgia and the C-reactive protein/albumin ratio

Objectives: This study aimed to assess whether the C-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CAR) is a risk factor for trigeminal neuralgia (TN) development and the relationship between the CAR and TN pain frequency. Patients and methods: In this retrospective study, 100 patients (51 females, 49 males; mean age: 58.6±14.1 years; range, 31 to 88 years) with idiopathic TN and 70 healthy controls (38 females, 32 males; mean age: 54.1±15.7 years; range, 21 to 89 years) were included between January 2020 and December 2022. Patients were divided into two groups by weekly and monthly pain frequency. The laboratory findings and CARs were compared. Results: The CAR values were significantly different between the patient and control groups (p<0.05) and were significantly different among TN subgroups divided according to attack frequency (p<0.05). Conclusion: Since there was a significant relationship between TN and CAR as a prognostic predictor, this relationship demonstrated once again that inflammation plays a role in the etiopathogenesis of TN. As opposed to previous studies that investigated the effect of only inflammation, the effects of both inflammation and malnutrition could be investigated by evaluating CAR in this study.