Study of Association of Serum Lipids with Diabetic Retinopathy in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Background: About 10% of diabetic people are at risk for developing diabetic retinopathy (DR), a leading cause of blindness globally. Objective: To compare serum lipid level in T2DM patients with vs. without retinopathy in population of Pakistan. Study Design: It was a randomized controlled trial. Settings: This study was carried out at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore Pakistan. Duration: Eight months from 17/2/2020 to 17/10/2020. Methods: Patients with type 2 diabetes were split into two groups: patients without diabetic retinopathy DR (Group-I) and those with diabetic retinopathy DR (Group-II). Measurements were taken of HDL, LDL, total cholesterol and TG in the serum. Results: 100 patients in total, with ages ranging from 31 to 70 for both sexes and a mean age of 56.20 ± 7.75. The gender distribution of the study participants revealed that males were more than females by a ratio of 1:1, with 43% of the patients being of the female sex and 57% of the patients being male. Serum lipid mean values for subjects with vs. without DR are compared. The mean total cholesterol for those with DR is 249 ± 27.04, while the mean for those without DR is 213 ± 43.03. As a result of DR, serum HDL levels are lower, with a mean of 41.94 ± 5.87 compared to 49.6 ± 9 9.31 in people without DR. Conclusion: A positive correlation between elevated serum lipids (Triglycerides (TG), Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), Total Cholesterol (TC) has been established and also high serum lipid levels have also been proposed as a risk factor for DR.