Background
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a serious complication of longstanding type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a leading cause of blindness and visual disability in the world. The
Conclusion
The present study demonstrated a significantly greater serum PAI-1 levels in patients with DR compared to those without DR. No significant correlations between tears and serum PAI-1 and tPA were observed. Thus, the role of tear biomarkers remains relevant for further investigations.
Results
Patients with DR had significantly longer disease duration and higher systolic blood pressure compared to those without DR. Serum PAI-1 level was significantly higher in patients with DR compared to those without DR, 32.72 (IQR 32.52) vs 21.37 (IQR 14.93) ng/mL, respectively (p < 0.05). However, tear PAI-1 were comparable in both groups. Serum and tear tPA levels in both groups were also comparable (p > 0.05). Among patients with DR, there were no significant correlations between tear and serum of both biomarkers. Patients without DR showed a moderate positive correlation between serum and tear tPA levels with a coefficient of 0.363, albeit no statistical significance. Patients with DR demonstrated a significant positive correlation between levels of tears PAI-1 and BMI (r = 0.555, p = 0.026). In the group without DR, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between serum level of PAI-1 with urine albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) (r = 0.501, p = 0.013).