Serum prorenin levels are not associated with ocular diseases in non-diabetic subjects

To determine if the serum prorenin level is useful for detecting ocular disease in a non-diabetic population.

We enrolled non-diabetic men (n = 402) and women (n = 349) in our study. We used the antibody-activating direct enzyme kinetic assay of human prorenin to determine serum prorenin levels. We performed multiple regression analysis to determine the factors that affect serum prorenin levels, such as: age, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), total cholesterol, fasting blood sugar, and HbA1c or estimated glomerular filtration rate. Our study subjects were divided into groups by their ophthalmologic diagnosis. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to detect a significant difference in the serum prorenin levels among the groups.

There were no significant differences in serum prorenin levels among the ocular diseases and disorders. The DBP was negatively correlated with serum prorenin levels in men (r = - 0.1992; p = 0.021) and in women (r = - 0.2067; p = 0.031).

Considering the current results and those of previous studies together, we found that the prorenin value is useful solely for predicting development of diabetic retinopathy in adults.