Table 1.
Patients’ clinical characteristics and HEs severity in the discovery group and the validation group.
| Characteristics | Discovery set (n = 116) |
Validation set (n = 51) |
Discovery vs Validation |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HEs Absent | HEs Present | Absent vs Present P value | HEs Absent | HEs Present | Absent vs Present P value | P value | |
| No. (%) | 47 (41%) | 69 (59%) | – | 20 (39%) | 31 (61%) | – | 0.874 |
| Age, mean (SD), y | 58.21 (12.20) | 57.51 (10.61) | 0.741 | 53.15 (12.79) | 56.65 (9.58) | 0.629 | 0.248 |
| Sex (male/female) | 18/29 | 46/23 | 0.003 | 12/8 | 22/9 | 0.417 | 0.165 |
| BMI, kg/m2 | 24.67 (4.45) | 24.49 (3.60) | 0.654 | 25.25 (4.23) | 24.09 (3.01) | 0.550 | 0.783 |
| Diabetes duration, median (IQR), y | 10.00 (10.00) | 11.0 (6.50) | 0.872 | 10.31 (6.83) | 11.36 (7.16) | 0.608 | 0.273 |
| HbA1c, median (IQR), % | 8.258 (1.71) | 7.90 (2.90) | 0.898 | 8.60 (1.80) | 8.70 (2.70) | 0.451 | 0.102 |
| CAD, % | 17.0 | 15.9 | 0.877 | 25.0 | 6.5 | 0.144 | 0.663 |
| HTN, % | 55.3 | 53.6 | 0.455 | 40.0 | 41.9 | 0.891 | 0.096 |
| DLD, % | 12.8 | 17.4 | 0.392 | 35.0 | 12.9 | 0.127 | 0.421 |
| Total cholesterol, median (IQR), mmol/L | 4.25 (1.27) | 4.34 (1.72) | 0.993 | 4.35 (2.12) | 4.66 (2.23) | 0.075 | 0.140 |
| Triglyceride, median (IQR), mmol/L | 1.39 (1.07) | 1.36 (0.93) | 0.531 | 1.37 (0.97) | 1.29 (1.00) | 0.847 | 0.488 |
| Creatinine, median (IQR), μmol/L | 62.00 (33.50) | 59.40 (23.00) | 0.978 | 59.80 (25.30) | 68.20 (35.00) | 0.140 | 0.341 |
| Urea, median (IQR), mmol/L | 6.60 (2.90) | 6.20 (1.90) | 0.676 | 5.43 (2.57) | 6.37 (3.16) | 0.206 | 0.598 |
| Uric acid, mean (SD), mmol/L | 335.91 (103.13) | 331.47 (86.56) | 0.809 | 321.78 (68.50) | 339.75 (81.88) | 0.420 | 0.967 |
Abbreviations: SD, standard deviation; IQR, interquartile range; HEs, hard exudates; DR, diabetic retinopathy; NPDR, non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy; PDR, proliferative diabetic retinopathy; CAD, coronary artery disease; HTN, hypertension; DLD, dyslipidemia.