Early microalbuminuria in adolescent Type 1 diabetic patients: Experience from a pediatric endocrine clinic in a developing country

Abstract

There are no studies of early microalbuminuria in adolescent Type 1 diabetic patients in the developing world where patients are considerably undernourished and follow conventional treatment regimens in most part. The objective was to assess the presence of microalbuminuria in Type 1 adolescent diabetes mellitus (DM) patients where patients still use conventional treatment regimen. The subjects (n = 30), in the age group of 10 to 18 years, were divided into two groups - good glycaemic (n = 16) and poor glycaemic (n = 14) control groups during end of study period based on their mean HbA1c value (<8.5 vs. ≥8.5, mean value over one year period). Though no subject with good glycaemic control developed microalbuminuria, 5 (35.7%) of the total 14 poor glycaemic control patients had microalbuminuria. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressures were higher in the microalbuminuric group. It is concluded that malnourished adolescent Type 1 diabetic patients who follow conventional treatment regimen and are poorly controlled, may develop very early microalbuminuria. Key words: Diabetic nephropathy, early diagnosis, microalbuminuria.