Aim: To study the correlation between altered serum lipid profile and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) based macular thickness parameters in diabetic retinopathy. Method: Study subjects included 60 cases of type 2diabetes mellitus (DM): no diabetic retinopathy (No DR, n=20); non proliferative DR (NPDR, n=20); proliferative DR (PDR, n=20) and 20 healthy controls. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was measured on logMAR scale. Cube average thickness (CAT) and central subfield thickness (CST) was assessed using SD-OCT. Serum lipid profile was analyzed using standard protocol. Data was analyzed statistically. Result: Decrease in BCVA positively correlated with increased CAT (r=0.25, p=0.028), increased CST (r=0.28, p=0.04), increased serum cholesterol (r=292, p=0.01) and decreased high density lipoprotein (r=-0.714, p=0.01). Statistically significant positive correlation was found between increase in CAT with increase in serum cholesterol (r=0.403, p=0.00) and also with increase in low density lipoprotein (r=0.343, p=0.02.). Conclusion: Deranged lipid profile correlates with the progression of diabetic retinopathy. Further, this study demonstrates the correlation of deranged lipid profile and decreased visual acuity with increased CAT.

Keywords: Diabetic Retinopathy; Lipid Profile; Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography; Cube Average Thickness; Central Subfield Thickness.