Introduction: Extensive studies have studied the factors associated with subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT). However, studies of the association between lipid profile and SFCT in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) in type 2 diabetes remain limited. Thus, we aimed to investigate the relationship between lipid profile and SFCT in patients with PDR.
Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. The included participants were inpatients who underwent vitrectomy for PDR with type 2 diabetes and contralateral eyes of PDR patients meeting the criteria. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to determine the independent association between lipid profile and SFCT.
Results: A total of 131 participants with PDR were enrolled in the final analysis. The average age of the participants was 55.76 ± 9.88 years, and the average SFCT was 276.10 ± 92.92 μm. Multivariate linear regression model results showed that in the fully adjusted model, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) had a negative association with SFCT (β = − 16.51, 95% CI: − 29.57, − 3.46; P = 0.0148; β = − 42.65, 95% CI: − 82.60, − 2.70; P = 0.0390; β = − 17.89, 95% CI: − 33.24, − 2.54; P = 0.0245, respectively), while triglyceride was not significantly associated with SFCT (β = 5.23, 95% CI: − 18.57, 29.02; P = 0.6678). Furthermore, the results of stratified analysis showed that except for triglyceride, the trends of total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C, and SFCT were consistent among different stratifications in participants.
Conclusion: The cholesterol profile had a significant negative association with SFCT in Chinese PDR patients, but triglyceride was not significantly associated with SFCT. This suggests that these systemic imbalances contribute to choroidal changes, and often coexist in diabetic patients.
Keywords: cholesterol, subfoveal choroidal thickness, proliferative diabetic retinopathy, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol