Non-invasive microcirculation assessment is a promising additional method to estimate the risks of complications development and to monitor the treatment efficacy. Aim of this study was to show that a non-invasive microcirculation assessment, using a laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF), can be used to evaluate odds of complications in patients with diabetes.
The study included 107 volunteers without diabetes (Group 1) and 250 diabetes patients which were divided into two groups: patients without retinopathy (Group 2) and those with retinopathy (Group 3). Perfusion was assessed using Laser Doppler Flowmetry during local heating test on the dorsal surface of the forearm.
The highest difference between groups was revealed in the “slope of the microcirculatory curve in the first two minutes of heating” parameter: the Kruskal-Wallis test with post hoc Dunn tests showed that all three groups were pairwise different with p<0,01. A logistic regression analysis was performed for patients with diabetes mellitus: odds ratio for retinopathy (95% CL) with HbA1c (1% increase) was 1.09 (0.94 - 1.26), with diabetes duration (1 year increase) - 1.16 (1.11 - 1.22), with “slope” parameter - 0.26 (0.21 - 0.57).
Use of the LDF method enabled to determine skin microcirculation disorders both in patients with retinopathy and in those without it. It was shown that these microcirculatory disorders - unlike the singly measured HbA1c - indicate increased odds of retinopathy in a diabetes patient. We suppose that this parameter can be used in prospect for the additional control of the risks of the retinopathy development.