Correlation Between Rewarming Time And Diabetic Retinopathy In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: To assess whether a longer rewarming time(RT)from finger cooling test(FCT)is associated with diabetic retinopathy(DR)in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).Methods Based on the results of flourescence fundus angiography,50 patients with T2 DM were divided three subgroups: non-DR(15 cases),non-proliferative DR(NPDR,16 cases)and proliferative DR(PDR,19 cases).Meanwhile,twenty non-T2 DM subjects,who had similar baseline demographic data with the non-DR patients were included as controls.The equipment for FCT provides temperature curve of finger.After taking the basic temperature(baseline-T),the right index finger was immersed into water at 10 °C for 60-seconds.After withdrawal from the cool water,the finger temperature was continually measured until recovering to the baseline-T levels,or for 20 min.The duration for the temperature recovery was noted as the RT.Meanwhile,mean temperature recovery(MTR)of the cooled finger was calculated based on the formula: MTR= DA/RT(?/min).Results: Against the controls(4.27±1.74min),the non-DR(6.43±4.41min),NPDR(9.15±5.96min)and PDR(15.1±5.38min)subgroups had significantly longer RT.But lower MTR comparing with the controls(2.56±1.43min),the non-DR(1.84±0.97min),NPDR(1.43±1.08min)and PDR(0.89±0.78min)subgroups.Meanwhile,Kendall's tau-b lineal correlation demonstrated that RT was positive independent predictor for DR stages(r=0.549,P<0.001)and for the diabetes duration(r=0.581,P<0.001).On the other hand,MTR was negatively associated with DR stages(r=-0.463,P<0.001).Conclusions: Microvascular dysfunction may play a role in the development and progress of diabetic retinopathy.