{
  "abstract": "Background: Systemic inflammation and impaired nutritional status may be associated with altered cellular immune profiles in surgical inpatients. However, peripheral T- and NK-cell profiles and their clinical correlates remain insufficiently characterized in hospitalized gastrointestinal surgery patients.\n\nMethods: This retrospective observational study included hospitalized patients from a gastrointestinal surgery department who underwent peripheral blood lymphocyte subset testing between January 2024 and May 2025. Patients were classified into disease categories according to discharge diagnoses. T lymphocytes, natural killer (NK) cells, B lymphocytes, and NKT cells were analyzed together with inflammatory markers, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), white blood cell count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), and nutritional markers including serum albumin and hemoglobin. Group comparisons, correlation analyses, and multivariable regression were performed. Continuous T-cell and NK-cell counts were the primary outcomes; cohort-defined low-count status was a secondary exploratory outcome. Sensitivity analyses included multiple imputation and Firth penalized logistic regression.\n\nResults: After excluding one patient with missing diagnosis, 887 patients were included, of whom 623 had complete data for multivariable analysis. Higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was associated with lower continuous T-cell and NK-cell counts and higher odds of low-count status across complete-case and sensitivity analyses. In models pooled across 50 imputed datasets, obstruction/perforation-related acute abdomen, compared with benign anorectal diseases, was associated with lower T-cell counts (adjusted geometric mean ratio [aGMR] = 0.822, 95% CI 0.706–0.958, P = 0.012) and lower NK-cell counts (aGMR = 0.821, 95% CI 0.677–0.995, P = 0.045). These associations did not reach statistical significance in the complete-case models, indicating sensitivity to missing-data handling. Albumin associations varied by outcome and analysis.\n\nConclusion: The primary findings concern associations of continuous T-cell and NK-cell counts with inflammatory and nutritional markers, with NLR showing consistent associations across analyses. Cohort-defined low-count status was a secondary, exploratory outcome. These findings do not establish causality or validated clinical thresholds and require prospective validation with standardized sampling and perioperative data.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Pathology, The First Hospital of Changsha/The Affiliated Changsha Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China",
    "Changsha High-Throughput Sequencing Technology Innovation Center for Gastrointestinal Tumor Precision Medicine, Changsha, Hunan, China",
    "Department of Infectious and Immunology, The First Hospital of Changsha/The Affiliated Changsha Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China",
    "Department of Information and Data, The First Hospital of Changsha/The Affiliated Changsha Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China",
    "Department of Emergency, The First Hospital of Changsha/The Affiliated Changsha Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Zhi Duan"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Xiangjuan Jiao"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Ning Wang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Wubin Zhou"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Jiao He"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Lingyong Liu"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Qi Zuo"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Zhen Li"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7q6x21pp9022y.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fmed.2026.1916752",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13730929/",
  "id": "7q6x21pp9022y",
  "issns": [
    "2296-858X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2026.1916752",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2730|Inflammatory Biomarkers in Disease Prognosis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223119792",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2026.1916752/pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13730929",
  "pmid": "42984792",
  "published": "2026-10-21",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7q6x21pp9022y.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-07T12:23:53Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13730929",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2026.1916752"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2730|Inflammatory Biomarkers in Disease Prognosis",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Lower peripheral T- and NK-cell counts are associated with systemic inflammation and nutritional status in hospitalized gastrointestinal surgery patients",
  "title_text": "Lower peripheral T- and NK-cell counts are associated with systemic inflammation and nutritional status in hospitalized gastrointestinal surgery patients",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-08T12:21:13Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/7q6x21pp9022y",
  "venue": "Frontiers in Medicine",
  "versions": []
}