Supplementary Material for: Immune-Nutritional Status as a Novel Prognostic Predictor of Bell’s Palsy

Introduction: The prognosis of Bell’s palsy, idiopathic facial nerve palsy (FNP), is usually predicted by electroneuronography in subacute phase. However, it would be ideal to establish a reliable and objective examination applicable in acute phase to predict the prognosis of FNP. Immune-nutritional status (INS) calculated from peripheral blood examination is recently reported as the prognostic factor in various disease. However, the validity of INS as the prognostic factor in Bell’s palsy is not well known. Thus, we conducted a retrospective study to investigate the usefulness of INS as prognostic predictors of Bell’s palsy. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 79 patients with Bell’s palsy and divided into two groups as “complete recovery” and “incomplete recovery” groups. Clinical features such as severity of FNP and INS, including neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR), prognostic nutritional index (PNI), and controlling nutrition status (CONUT) score, were assessed. Results: In univariate analysis, statistically significant differences were observed in clinical score of facial movement, NLR, LMR, PNI, and CONUT score at the initial examination between the two groups (p < 0.05). Furthermore, in multivariate analysis, statistically significant differences were also observed in facial movement score and PNI at the initial examination (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Immune and nutritional condition play important roles in the pathogenesis of Bell’s palsy, suggesting that INS would be one of the useful prognostic factors in Bell’s palsy.

引言：贝尔麻痹（Bell’s palsy），即特发性面神经麻痹（FNP），其预后通常在亚急性期通过神经电图（electroneuronography）进行预测。然而，若能建立一种适用于急性期的可靠且客观的检查方法以预测特发性面神经麻痹的预后，则更为理想。近年来有研究表明，通过外周血检查计算得到的免疫营养状态（INS）可作为多种疾病的预后因素，但目前关于免疫营养状态作为贝尔麻痹预后因素的有效性尚不明确。因此，本研究开展了一项回顾性研究，旨在探讨免疫营养状态作为贝尔麻痹预后预测指标的应用价值。
方法：本研究回顾性分析了79例贝尔麻痹患者的病历资料，并将其分为完全康复组与不完全康复组。本研究评估了患者的多项临床特征，包括特发性面神经麻痹严重程度以及免疫营养状态相关指标，具体涵盖中性粒细胞与淋巴细胞比值（NLR）、淋巴细胞与单核细胞比值（LMR）、预后营养指数（PNI）以及控制营养状况（CONUT）评分。
结果：单因素分析显示，两组患者首次就诊时的面部运动临床评分、NLR、LMR、PNI以及CONUT评分均存在统计学显著性差异（p < 0.05）。进一步的多因素分析显示，两组患者首次就诊时的面部运动评分与PNI仍存在统计学显著性差异（p < 0.05）。
结论：免疫与营养状态在贝尔麻痹的发病机制中发挥重要作用，提示免疫营养状态可作为贝尔麻痹的有效预后因素之一。