Elevated serum total bilirubin concentrations are negatively associated with diabetic retinopathy among the Chinese Northeastern population

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate the association between serum total bilirubin concentration (STBC) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) among the Chinese northeastern population. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Liaoning between January 2015 and May 2017. Results. A total of 742 subjects (419 men and 323 women) with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) who visited an ophthalmic clinic were included in this study. The mean age of the subjects was 59.55 ± 10.63 years, and 43.5% of the subjects were women. The mean of DM duration was 11.01 ± 7.35 years. STBC were negatively correlated with DM duration, urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, uric acid, and urine microalbumin. After adjusting for confounding factors, as a continuous variable, STBC was inversely associated with the risk of DR in total subjects (OR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.93-0.99). When STBC was used as a tertiary variable, compared with the first tertile, the OR in the third tertile was 0.37 (95% CI: 0.22-0.64) in total subjects. Conclusion. Our results demonstrate that a significant negative association was found between STBC and DR. STBC might be an early clinical marker for predicting the occurrence of DR.