The Clinical Value of Serum Progranulin level as a biomarker for retinopathy in type 2 diabetic patients

Background: The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) calls for evolving a concomitant screening strategies for early disease detection and prediction of the complications. Progranulin (PRGN) was recently introduced as a biomarker of inflammation in T2DM. The Aim of this study was to assessment the Serum progranulin level as a biomarker for the presence and severity of retinopathy in type 2 diabetic patients. Patients and Methods: The current cross-sectional study was carried out conducted on (48 type 2 diabetic patients) at the Internal Medicine and ophthalmology out-patient clinic of Zagazig University Hospitals, during the period from May 2019 to October 2019. All patient referred to ophthalmic out-patient clinic for fundal examination by ophthalmologist ,in which diabetic retinopathy was diagnosed, a complete physical examination including the measurement of height, weight, body mass index, and blood pressure (BP) was performed for all patients. Results: The current study showed that there was a high statistical significant increase in serum Progranulin (PGRN) level in diabetic patients with retinopathy, there was a statistical significant positive correlation between serum PGRN level with disease duration, urea, creatinine level and urinary Albumin creatinine Ratio (ACR) of studied retinopathy patients and also there was a high statistical significant increase in serum PGRN level in diabetic patients with proliferative retinopathy. Conclusions: According to our results serum PGRN level could be used as a biomarker for the presence of microvascular retinal complication and to anticipate the severity of diabetic retinopathy in T2DM patients.