Plasmalogens and Octanoylcarnitine Serve as Early Warnings for Central Retinal Artery Occlusion

Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) is a kind of ophthalmic emergency which may cause loss of functional visual acuity. However, the limited treatment options emphasize the significance of early disease prevention. Metabolomics has the potential to be a powerful tool for early identification of individuals at risk of CRAO. The aim of the study was to identify potential biomarkers for CRAO through a comprehensive analysis. We employed metabolomics analysis to compare venous blood samples from CRAO patients with cataract patients for the venous difference, as well as arterial and venous blood from CRAO patients for the arteriovenous difference. The analysis of metabolites showed that PC(P-18:0/22:6(4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z,19Z)), PC(P-18:0/20:4(5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z)) and octanoylcarnitine were strongly correlated with CRAO. We also used univariate logistic regression, random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM) to screen clinical parameters of patients and found that HDL-C and ApoA1 showed significant predictive efficacy in CRAO patients. We compared the predictive performance of the clinical parameter model with combined model. The prediction efficiency of the combined model was significantly better with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.815. Decision curve analysis (DCA) also exhibited a notably higher net benefit rate. These results underscored the potency of these three substances as robust predictors of CRAO occurrence.