Abstract:Objective To explore the correlation between the severity of diabetic foot (DF) and evaluation indicators. Methods The clinical data of 1,578 patients with DF at the Air Force General Hospital from November 2001 to April 2015 were retrospectively analyzed [excluding 21 type 1 and special type diabetes mellitus (DM) patients, 28 DM patients with Wagner 0 grade and 193 patients with a large number of missing data]. All the patients were divided into five groups according to the Wagner grade. Variance analysis and chi-square test were used among five groups and Spearmen analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between the selected indicators and Wagner grade. Results Among 1,578 patients with DF ulcers, there were 73 (4.6%) patients in Wagner 1 grade, 241 (15.3%) in Wagner 2 grade, 280 (17.7%) in Wagner 3 grade, 945 (59.9%) in Wagner 4 grade and 39 (2.5%) in Wagner 5 grade. With the increase of Wagner grade, C-reaction protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), ferritin, hospital stays, hospitalization expenses, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting blood-glucose (FBG) and the incidences of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) increased, while hemoglobin (Hb) and body mass index (BMI) decreased. Spearmen analysis showed that PAD, DPN, HbA1c, FBG and infectious indexes (CRP, ESR and ferritin) were positively correlated with DF severity while nutritive indexes (Hb and BMI) were negatively correlated with it (P < 0.05). Conclusions PAD, DPN, HbA1c, FBG, infection factors and nutritional factors are regarded to be closely associated with the DF severity.