Correlation between retinal vascular parameters and cystatin C in patients with type 2 diabetes

Aims: To investigate the relationship between retinal vascular parameters and cystatin C in patients with type 2 diabetes in northwestern China.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 1689 patients with type 2 diabetes. A validated fully automated computer program was used to extract retinal vascular parameters from the entire vascular tree. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between these vascular measurements and cystatin C.

Results: For retinal vascular geometrical measurements, smaller arteriolar fractal dimension was related to high cystatin C after adjusting for multiple variables (odds ratio [OR] 0.149, 95% CI 0.042-0.532). For retinal vascular caliber measurements, narrower central and middle arteriolar calibers were related to high cystatin C after adjusting for multiple variables (central: OR 0.922, 95% CI 0.886-0.960; middle: OR 0.940, 95% CI 0.901-0.981). Wider central, middle and peripheral venular calibers were associated with high cystatin C after adjusting for multiple variables (central: OR 1.058, 95% CI 1.003-1.117; middle: OR 1.094, 95% CI 1.040-1.150; peripheral: OR 1.075, 95% CI 1.023-1.130).

Conclusions: Multiple retinal vascular geometrical and caliber measurements are associated with cystatin C in type 2 diabetic patients. Further studies are needed to explore whether these retinal vascular changes can predict the incidence and progress of diabetic nephropathy.