The Association Between Skin Autofluorescence and Vascular Complications in Chinese Patients With Diabetic Foot Ulcer: An Observational Study Done in Shanghai

The tissue accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) can be noninvasively assessed as skin autofluorescence (SAF) by the AGE Reader(TM) device. We aimed to detect the association between SAF and diabetes-associated vascular complications in diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) patients engaged in this study. This cross-sectional survey consisted of 118 consecutive hospitalized diabetic foot patients. The diabetic microvascular (retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy) and macrovascular referring to coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease (CVD), or peripheral artery disease (PAD) complications were evaluated, and then they were divided into different subgroups based on the assessment of vascular complications. As seen from the results, the mean SAF value was 2.8 +/- 0.2 AU. SAF was significantly associated with diabetes duration and blood urea nitrogen (R-2 = 62.8%; P < .01). Moreover, in logistic regression analysis, SAF was significantly associated with retinopathy (odds ratio [OR] = 40.11), nephropathy (OR = 8.44), CHD (OR = 44.31), CVD (OR = 80.73), and PAD (OR = 5.98 x 10(9)). In conclusion, SAF, reflecting tissue accumulation of AGEs, is independently associated with the presence of vascular complications in DFU patients.