Serum uric acid and lipid profile in diabetic retinopathy in rural Haryana, India

Background: Diabetic retinopathy is associated with severe ophthalmic morbidity. Present study aimed to analyse serum uric acid (UA) and lipid profile in newly diagnosed type-II diabetes mellitus (DM) who presented with and without retinopathy. Method: A total of 57 subjects were recruited for the present study and were divided in three groups. Sixteen type-II DM patients without retinopathy (group-I), 18 type-II DM patients with retinopathy (group-II) and 23 age and sex matched healthy controls (group-III). Five ml of fasting venous blood sample was collected under proper aseptic precautions from median cubital vein and analyzed for fasting blood sugar, HbA1c, UA, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high density lipoproteins (HDL) by standard enzymatic methods. Very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and low density lipoptoteins (LDL) was calculated using Frieldwald’s formula. FBS, HbA1c, UA, total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL, LDL and VLDL levels were compared between different groups. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software and student‘t’ test. Results: A statistically significant lower value of mean HDL was found in group-I and II than group-III (p=0.01 and 0.00 respectively). Mean HbA1c and mean FBS significantly correlated with UA (r=-0.45, p=0.01 and r=-0.39, p=0.02 respectively) in group-I and II. A deranged HDL profile and a significant correlation between glycemic control and HbA1cand UA were thus found in diabetic subjects (with or without retinopathy). Conclusions: An insight into the deranged biochemical profile could assist in predicting onset of complications of diabetes.