Urinary Total Protein as the Predictor of Albuminuria in Diabetic Patients

This Study was performed to determine appropriate cut off point in 24 hours urine total protein to diagnose micro- and macroalbuminuria in patients with diabetes mellitus.Patients and In this study, 204 patients with diabetes mellitus type I and II were selected. In collected 24 hours urine from patients, protein and albumin were measured by using Pyrogallol and Immunoturbidimetry methods, respectively. Normoalbuminuri (albumin < 30 mg/24hrs urine), microalbuminuri (albumin = 30-300 mg/24hrs urine), and macroalbuminuri (, albumin > 300 mg/24hrs urine) were detected in 130, 51, and 23 patients, respectively. In 24hrs urine collections, amounts of protein and albumin were compared to calculate cut off point of exerted protein for nephropathy diagnosis. cut off point of 73mg/day for urinary total protein had appropriate sensitivity (94.5 %, CI = 91.4 % -97.6 %) and specificity (77.9 %, CI = 72.8 % -82.9 %) for microalbuminuria, while cut off point of 514 mg/day (sensitivity 95.7 %; specificity 98.9 %) was detected for diagnosis macroalbuminuria. Urine protein exertion of 150 mg/day that is currently considered as a normal value in most laboratory kits had a sensitivity of 73.1 % by which 30 % of microalbuminuric cases remained undiagnosed. Urinary total protein cut-off points of 73mg/day and 514 mg/day were diagnostic for micro- and macroalbuminuria, respectively.