Table 5: Discriminant analysis with retinopathy as the dependent outcome variable and a set of explanatory variables (VEGF-A, Sorbitol, Age, Gender, Duration of DM.

Study Variables Order of Importance Canonical Discriminant Function Coefficients
Duration of DM (years) 1 0.090
Age (years) 2 0.036
Sorbitol (mg/L) 3 4.431
VEGF-A (ng/ml) 4 0.002