Dereli S, et al. - In 287 patients with non-valvular persistent atrial fibrillation (AF), researchers determined the part played by platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in recurrence prediction following successful electrical cardioversion (ECV). All subjects underwent routine assessments of complete blood count, routine biochemistry tests, and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) at study entry. Six months post-procedure follow-up was performed. Patients who recurred vs those who maintained sinus rhythm (SR) were compared. In patients who had restoration of the sinus rhythm after successful ECV, recurrence during 6 months of follow-up could be predicted by elevated PLR, which was identified as a marker of increased inflammation. At a cutoff value of 147, PLR yielded 83.3% and 84.5% of sensitivity and specificity, respectively, for predicting AF recurrence.