INS and diabetes mellitus: Briefly, subjects with incident DR had a notably higher mean age (52.4 vs. 47.3 years; P<0.001), a longer diabetes course (median 89.5 vs. 42 months; P<0.001), higher levels of HbA1c (median 7.75% vs. 7.3%; P=0.001), FBG (median 8.60 vs. 7.63 mmol/L; P=0.046), NLR and lower levels of fasting insulin (median 8.26 vs. 9.85 mU/L; P=0.015), TGs (median 1.27 vs. 1.49 mmol/L; P=0.048), uric acid (mean 316.10 vs. 336.51μmol/L; P=0.010), and eGFR (mean 104.79 vs. 107.72 mL/min/1.