Microalbuminuria: An early marker of diabetic kidney disease

Abstract

Background: Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease globally and contributes to the total disease burden. The study was carried to estimate the occurrence of microalbuminuria in type II diabetics and to find its association with blood pressure, duration of disease and anthropometric measurements. Findings: The cross-sectional study was conducted for six months in Pakistan Medical Research Council Research Centre, Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore. A total of 91 subjects who met the inclusion criteria were selected. A comprehensive questionnaire including age, education, socio-economic status, medical history, blood pressure and anthropometric measurements was used as a study tool. Random blood sample was used for the estimation of plasma glucose, blood urea and serum creatinine, while first morning urine sample was collected for the qualitative screening of microalbuminuria. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 15 (SPSS-15). The mean age of 91 selected subjects was 50 ± 9 years and male to female ratio was 2:1. 80.2% subjects were diabetic hypertensive and remaining 19.8% had only diabetes. The overall prevalence of microalbuminuria was 58.2%. Prevalence of microalbuminuria among males was 30.2% and among females 69.8%. Correlation analysis showed that plasma glucose level, duration of diabetes and systolic blood pressure correlated with microalbuminuria at P<0.05. While age, BMI, waist to hip ratio were not statistically correlated with microalbumin. Among the 53 patients having microalbuminuria, serum urea and creatinine was found to be raised in 13.2%. Conclusion: Microalbumin has associations with systolic blood pressure, elevated plasma glucose level and duration of diabetes. Hence, diabetic patients should be subjected to routine screening for microalbuminuria at least once in a year.