To assess the levels of leucine-rich α-2 glycoprotein-1 (LRG1) in aqueous humour and serum of patients with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and to investigate the correlation between LRG1 and RVO.

This is a cross-sectional study. This study involved 41 patients with retinal vein occlusion (RVO), comprising 15 individuals with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), 26 with branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO), and 36 with cataracts. The study cohort was further categorized into ischemia (n=15) and non-ischemic subtypes (n=26). Aqueous humor (100μL) was obtained after intravitreal anti-VEGF injection or cataract surgery. LRG1 was quantified using ELISA kits.

The aqueous and serum concentrations of LRG1 were considerably elevated in the eyes of individuals with RVO compared to controls (All P<0.001).Additionally, serum LRG1 levels in the ischemic group were significantly elevated compared to the non-ischemic and control groups (P<0.001).Nonetheless, the aqueous LRG1 levels exhibited no significant change between the ischemic and non-ischemic groups (P=0.758).The serum LRG1 concentration above 26.53 μg/ml achieves the maximum Youden index of 0.7556 in the ROC analysis. The area under the ROC curve for serum LRG1 is 0.874 (P<0.0001).

Patients with RVO had greater serum LRG1 levels. Furthermore, ischemic RVO had considerably higher serum LRG1 levels than non-ischemic patients. Consequently, serum LRG1 may be associated with the occurrence and development of retinal ischemia.