| • Confounding effects of corticosteroids and other anti-rheumatic drugs that affect blood cell counts are sometimes overlooked. |
| • Results of retrospective studies tell nothing about causal relationships of shifts in PLR. |
| • Single measurements of laboratory parameters do not reflect their dynamics. |
| • Long duration of subjects' enrollment (more than three to six months) requires correction for seasonal variability of hemogram indexes. |
| • Specificity of the shifts in PLR is often overlooked in patients with long-standing diseases who may suffer from occult progressive vascular, metabolic, autoimmune, and neoplastic comorbidities. |
| • Molecular markers of activation of platelets and other blood cells are not measured to reveal associations with cellular markers of inflammation. |
| • Preanalytical faults with inadequate anticoagulation of blood samples and use of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid may result in in-vitro platelet agglutination and pseudothrombocytopenia, which is particularly an issue in patients with malignancies. |
| • There are no race-, age-, and sex-specific recommendations for the use of hemograms to date. |
