Serum CA125 Level Is Associated with Diabetic Retinopathy in Chinese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Litong Yao; Yifan Zhong; Lingzi He; Yan Wang; Jingyang Wu; Jin Geng; Yun Zhou; Jiahua Zhang; Jun Chen; Zhongyan Shan; Weiping Teng; Yingying Xu; Lei Chen; Lei Liu

doi:10.2147/DMSO.S250928

Serum CA125 Level Is Associated with Diabetic Retinopathy in Chinese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2020 May 22:13:1803-1812. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S250928. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Litong Yao^#^{1

2}, Yifan Zhong^#³, Lingzi He^#¹, Yan Wang^#⁴, Jingyang Wu³, Jin Geng³, Yun Zhou³, Jiahua Zhang³, Jun Chen³, Zhongyan Shan⁵, Weiping Teng⁵, Yingying Xu², Lei Chen³, Lei Liu³

Affiliations

¹ China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Breast Surgery, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Radiology, General Hospital of Liaohe Oil Field, Panjin 124010, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Institute of Endocrinology, Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Endocrine Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: To investigate the association between serum carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) and the presence as well as severity of diabetes retinopathy (DR) in Chinese adult patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 2012 to November 2018. DR was assessed using Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study criteria. Vision-threatening DR (VTDR) was diagnosed if subjects had severe non-proliferative DR (NPDR), proliferative DR (PDR), or clinically significant macular edema (CSME). Multivariate logistic regression models were applied to explore the associations.

Results: Among the 2696 participants, the overall prevalence of DR was 25.1%, of which the prevalence of mild NPDR, moderate NPDR, and VTDR was 10.8%, 4.5%, and 9.9%, respectively. Serum CA125 level was significantly higher in participants with DR and increased with the severity of DR (P = 0.013). After accounting for age, gender, smoking, drinking, duration of diabetes, anti-diabetic agents use, systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, weight, hemoglobin A1c and fasting plasma glucose levels, CA125 level was significantly associated with subjects in any-severity DR (odds ratio [OR] 1.006 [95% confidence interval CI: 1.002-1.010], P = 0.006) and VTDR (1.008 [1.003-1.013], P = 0.001). When CA125 was treated as categorized variables, the prevalence of VTDR might increase as improving CA125 quartiles (P value for trend = 0.017).

Conclusion: In this study, serum CA125 level was associated with the presence and severity of DR in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes. Further prospective studies should be warranted to validate the feasible role of CA125 as well as other biomarkers.

Keywords: CA125; association; diabetes retinopathy; tumor biomarker; type 2 diabetes.

Grants and funding

This article is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81300783), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019TQ0358), Department of Education of Liaoning Province (No. LQNK201703), and LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program (No. XLYC1807082). The funders had no involvement in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.