The Prevalence and some Risk Factors of Microalbuminuria among Type 2 Diabetics that Referred to a Diabetes Clinic

Due to the worldwide prevalence of diabetes, the disease has become a pandemic giving much more weight to its side effects. One of the chronic complications related to diabetes is Diabetic Nephropathy that leads to notable rate of death. Microalbuminuria is one of the determinants that predicts the onset of diabetic nephropathy. Introduction This study was carried out on 369 type 2 diabetic patients who referred to a diabetes clinic in karaj. A questionnaire inquiring the participants’ age, gender, duration of diabetes and family history of diabetes was filled out. Body Mass Index (BMI) and Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN), the levels of Creatinin, Cholesterol, Triglyceride as well as HbA1C measurements were examined. Then, the twelve-hour urine samples collected from the patients with standard method s were examined for urine culture, urine analysis and urine albumin. Materials and Methods Out of 369 patients, 309 (83.7%) were diagnosed as normoalbuminuric (Albumin excretion less than 20 mcg/min), 57 (15.5%) were microalbuminuric (Albumin excretion between 20- 200 mcg/min) and 3 (0.8%) were macroalbuminuric (Albumin excretion more than 200 mcg/min). Statistically, there was a significant difference between blood creatinin, BMI and HbA1C of patients in two groups of microalbuminuria and normoalbuminuria, but there were no significant differences in age, sex, duration of diabetes, family history of diabetes, blood pressure, and hyperlipidemia between the two groups of the study. Because of the small sample size of macroalbuminuric patients, statistical analyses on this group are not considered valid. Results In the mentioned population, the prevalence rate of microalbuminuria is 15.5 percentage and the increase of blood creatinin, BMI as well as the indication of poor blood Glucose control are among the risk factors that cause microalbuminuria.