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New Insights into Diabetic and Vision-Threatening Retinopathy: Importance of Plasma Long Pentraxine 3 and Taurine Levels

ABSTRACT Purpose To investigate diabetic retinopathy (DR), plasma long pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) and taurine levels, and systemic factors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Materials and Methods Patients with type 2 DM were categorized based on the presence of DR and maculopathy. Retinal findings (retinopathy, maculopathy, flame-shaped hemorrhage, intraretinal microvascular abnormalities, neovascularization of the optic disc, neovascularization elsewhere, and soft exudate); laboratory findings (fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c], Taurine, PTX-3); systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were analyzed. Results In this study, 39 patients with a mean age of 59.5 ± 8.1 years were included. The mean taurine level was significantly lower (p = .025) and HbA1c values were significantly higher (p = .0001) in patients with and without DR, respectively. In patients with varying severity of DR, a significant difference in the plasma taurine level was found (p = .0001). The mean PTX-3 level decreased with the severity of retinopathy; however, there was no significant difference in levels among the grading groups (p = .732). Taurine and PTX-3 levels were significantly lower in patients with maculopathy (p = .001 and p = .022, respectively) and significantly higher in patients with grade 0 maculopathy than in those with grade 1, 2, or 3 maculopathy (p = .023, p = .01, and p = .01, respectively). Patients with flame-shaped hemorrhage had significantly lower PTX-3 levels (p = .009) and higher SBP and DBP levels (p = .003, p = .023) than those without the hemorrhage. Conclusions No significant relation between PTX-3 level and severity of DR was found. HbA1c, taurine, and PTX-3 levels in patients with vision-threatening DR symptoms were significantly different from those without these symptoms. Management of systemic blood pressure and glycemic control is mandatory in the follow-up of DR, and increasing the plasma taurine levels can prevent vision loss.