METHODS: Totally 174 cases of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and who treated in Department of Endocrinology from September 2015 to September 2017 were selected as the research objects, and were divided into the non-diabetic retinopathy group(NDR), non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy group(NPDR)and proliferative diabetic retinopathy group(PDR)according to the results of fundus examination. Then, the age, sex, body mass index(BMI), blood pressure, blood glucose, blood lipids, vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF), C-reactive protein(CRP), and Lp-PLA2 levels and other clinical data of three groups of patients were collected and compared.

RESULTS: There was significant differences in the duration of diabetes, fasting blood glucose(FBP), 2h postprandial blood glucose(2hBP), HbA1c, triacylglycerol(TG), total cholesterol(TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), VEGF, CRP, Lp-PLA2 between the three groups of patients(P<0.05). There was no significant difference in serum TG, TC, HDL-C and CRP levels between NPDR group and NDR group(P>0.05). While there was significant difference in biochemical indexes of patients between PDR group and NDR group(P<0.05). The VEGF, CRP and Lp-PLA2 in the PDR group were significantly higher than those in the NPDR group, and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis found that the serum Lp-PLA2 was positively correlated with age, course of disease, 2hBG, TG, VEGF and CRP(P<0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that serum Lp-PLA2 was positively correlated with the course of diabetes mellitus and serum level of VEGF(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: The level of serum Lp-PLA2 in patients with diabetic retinopathy are significantly increased, which the level is positively correlated with the duration of diabetes and serum VEGF level, thus it can be used as diagnostic index for diabetic retinopathy.