HP and type 2 diabetes mellitus: We found the metabolite ratios of 5 aliphatic amino acids (asparagine, aspartate, glutamate, isoleucine and valine) to PC ae C32:2 were associated with blood lipids, the serum Hp groups, and carotid IMT and/or IAD after adjusting for age, sex and BMI in T2DM patients (P < 0.05) (Table 5 and Additional file 1: Table S4).