Abstract: Objective To explore the correlation between serum ferritin (SF) levels and diabetic foot (DF) in the elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods The clinical data of 108 elderly T2DM patients admitted to Suzhou Municipal Hospital from August 2019 to April 2022 were analyzed retrospectively. All the patients were divided into DF group (n=48) and non-DF group (NDF, n=60). The correlation between SF level and DF risk was analyzed by curve fitting, and the cut-off value was defined by threshold effect analysis. Multiple Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the risk factors for DF. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the predictive performance of each indicator. Results When SF was>570 ng/mL, the risk of DF increased with the increase of SF (OR=0.975, 95%CI: 0.860-0.998, P<0.01). Glycosylated hemoglobin(HbA1c)>9.5%, total cholesterol(TC)>5.5 mmol/L, serum creatinine(Scr)>97.0 μmol/L, eGFR(estimated glomerular filtration rate)≤70.0 mL/(min·1.73 m²), SF>570.0 ng/mL and diabetic nephropathy(DN) were independent risk factors for DF (P<0.05). The ROC curve analysis showed that HbA1c, TC, Scr, eGFR, SF and DN were all highly effective indicators in predicting DF, of which SF showed the best efficiency. Conclusions As SF level increases, the risk of DF shows an upward trend. SF shows good predictive efficiency for the occurrence of DF. It is important to focus on SF in clinic to improve the patients' prognosis.

Key words: type 2 diabetes mellitus, serum ferritin, diabetic foot, correlation