The relationships between dietary inflammatory and antioxidant index with inflammatory markers in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between dietary total antioxidant capacity (DTAC) and the dietary inflammatory index (DII) with inflammatory status in children recently diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). As the relationship between diet quality scores and inflammation remains uncertain in this population, the authors carried out a hospital-based cross-sectional study. Design/methodology/approach The study used a cross-sectional design involving 54 children recently diagnosed with ALL. Dietary data was collected using a 147-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire developed for the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. Inflammatory status was evaluated using various indicators like C-reactive protein (CRP), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), Glasgow prognostic score (GPS) and Complete blood count-based inflammatory score. Findings The authors found no significant relationship between DII with inflammatory indices and length of hospitalization in patients. However, a significant inverse relationship was observed between the antioxidant indices ferric-reducing ability of plasma, total reactive antioxidant potential and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity with the inflammatory index MLR, respectively ( ß : −0.19, p = 0.001), ( ß : −0.42, p = 0.02), ( ß : −0.53, p = 0.005). Also, a significant inverse relationship between FRAP and CRP was observed in the crude model ( ß : −0.13, p = 0.05). FRAP was also inversely correlated with GPS and PLR, respectively ( ß : −0.08, p = 0.02), ( ß : −0.26, p = 0.03). No additional significant links were discovered between food scores and the outcomes studied. Originality/value This study found no link between DII with inflammatory markers or hospitalization duration in children with ALL. However, the authors did observe a noteworthy inverse relationship between DTAC and certain inflammatory markers like MLR. To achieve more dependable findings, further research in this area is necessary.